 In 1900 , the English scientist George Ernest Shelley used the spelling <unk> in a book , thereby creating a junior synonym ; however , he attributed the name to zoologist Philip Sclater . In 1967 , the American ornithologist James Greenway suggested that the Rodrigues starling should belong in the same genus as the hoopoe starling , Fregilupus , due to the similarity of the species . More subfossils found in 1974 added support to the claim that the Rodrigues bird was a distinct genus of starling . The stouter bill is mainly what warrants generic separation from Fregilupus . In 2014 , the British palaeontologist Julian P. Hume described a new extinct species , the Mauritius starling ( <unk> <unk> ) , based on subfossils from Mauritius . It was shown to be closer to the Rodrigues starling than to the hoopoe starling , due to the features of its skull , sternum and humerus . Until then , the Rodrigues starling was the only Mascarene passerine bird named from fossil material . 
