Thursday, February 19, 2009

Bird thought extinct photographed - then eaten

Wilson's buttonquail, a rounded featherball with black and brown plumage edged in white, is such a rare denizen of the Philippine island of Luzon that it was thgouht to be possibly extinct. It had never been photographed alive - until last month, when a TV crew captured the bird's image just before it was sold for food.

COMMENT: Let's hope that's not the last of its kind. If it is, the moment of a species' extinction will be known with rare and saddening precision.

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