name on the label. Sharpe corrected this to inornata, but this was both unjustified (as Buller apparently really believed to have read mavornata) and in any case preoccupied, as Salvadori had already named another starling Calornis inornata in 1880. Thus, although Buller's description – a few throwaway lines in an account of the striated starling referring to the unique specimen – is barely sufficient and his name nonsensical, it is nonetheless valid according to ICZN rules. There exists a drawing by Georg Forster, made on June 1, 1774, and some notes of a bird collected on Rai’atea (formerly known as Ulieta) between May 14 and June 1 (popularised in Martin Davies' 2005 novel The Conjurer's Bird as the "Mysterious Bird of Ulieta"). Sharpe and many subsequent authors claimed that the bird on the painting was the same species as the specimen, despite numerous discrepancies between the specimen and Forster's description. Stresemann debunked this theory thoroughly, but writers did not stop referring A. mavornata to Forster's bird, connecting it with the Society Islands or with Cook's second voyage. Only in 1986, when Olson published the results of his research, which included analysis of Bloxam's original diary and notes and concluded that his "Sturnus Mautiensis" can be identified with Buller's A. mavornata, was the mystery of Specimen 12.192 resolved. Since Bloxam's notes were originally published in a much bowdlerized and misleading edition where it is only mentioned that they "...saw [...] a starling..." without any details and especially no reference to a specimen, the true origin of the mysterious starling was long overlooked. In an ironic twist, Forster's bird, which had long puzzled ornithologists and was sometimes called "the mysterious bird of Raiatea" and variously considered a thrush or honeyeater is almost certainly another now-extinct species of Aplonis – thus, one could say that there are indeed two, not one species of "mysterious starling" from Pacific islands. References External links Species factsheet - BirdLife International Mauke starling Birds of the Cook Islands Extinct birds of Oceania Bird extinctions since 1500 Mauke starling Mauke starling Species known from a single specimen