 In 1786 , subfossil Rodrigues solitaire bones encrusted in stalagmite were discovered in a cave and sent to Georges Cuvier about 1830 . For unknown reasons , he stated they had recently been found on Mauritius , which caused confusion , until they were compared with other bones from Rodrigues that were found to belong to the same species . These finds confirmed Leguat 's descriptions , but at this time 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 104 square kilometres ( 40 sq mi ) , making it implausible that the bird would have survived undetected . 
