 The veracity of Hahn 's claim was questioned as early as 1876 , and the illustration appears to be plagiarised from the plate by François @-@ Nicolas Martinet which was published at least 50 years earlier . After King Maximilian died in 1825 , his collection was auctioned off , but no Mascarene parrot was mentioned in the inventory list of species . Hahn did not mention the date in which he actually saw the bird which could have been long before 1834 . However , the fact that Martinet 's image was copied and that no mounted specimen exists ( though such a rare bird would probably have been preserved ) makes Hahn 's account dubious . He may instead have based his account on other sources or even hearsay . 
