Editing Rodrigues solitaire (section)

===Extinction===
The Rodrigues solitaire probably became [[extinct]] sometime between the 1730s and 1760s; the exact date is unknown. Its disappearance coincided with the [[tortoise]] trade between 1730 and 1750; traders burnt off vegetation, hunted solitaires and imported cats and pigs that preyed on eggs and chicks.<ref name="ChekeHume2008p111"/> In 1755, the French engineer [[Joseph-François Charpentier de Cossigny]] attempted to obtain a live specimen, as he had been assured the Rodrigues solitaire still survived in remote areas of the island. Though trying for 18 months, and offering large rewards, none could be found. He noted that cats were blamed for decimating the species, but suspected that it was due to hunting by humans instead.<ref name="ChekeHume2008p111"/> The French astronomer [[Alexandre Guy Pingré]] did not encounter any solitaires when he visited Rodrigues to observe the [[1761 transit of Venus]], although he had been assured they survived. His friend, the French astronomer [[Pierre Charles Le Monnier]] named the constellation [[Turdus Solitarius]] after the bird to commemorate the journey. Although the Rodrigues solitaire is the only extinct bird to have a [[former constellation]] named for it, celestial mapmakers did not know what it looked like and [[star map]]s depicted other birds.<ref name="Fuller2002"/>

By the time the discovery of subfossil Rodrigues solitaire bones from 1786 onwards confirmed Leguat's descriptions, no living residents of Rodrigues remembered having seen live specimens. In 1831, a man who had lived on Rodrigues for 40 years said that he had never seen birds large enough to be Rodrigues solitaires. Rodrigues covers only {{convert|104|km2}}, making it implausible that the bird would have survived undetected.<ref name="Fuller2001"/>