 The first subfossil bird remains on Réunion were found in 1974 , and assigned to a stork , <unk> sp . The remains were found in a cave , which indicated it had been brought there and eaten by early settlers . It was speculated that the remains could have belonged to a large , mysterious bird described by Leguat , and called " Leguat 's giant " by some ornithologists . " Leguat 's giant " is now thought to be based on a locally extinct population of <unk> . In 1987 , subfossils of a recently extinct species of ibis from Réunion were described as <unk> <unk> , and thought related to the bald <unk> of the genus <unk> . In 1994 , the " stork " remains were shown to belong to this ibis as well . The 1987 discovery led biologist Anthony S. Cheke to suggest to one of the <unk> , <unk> <unk> , that the subfossils may have been of the Réunion solitaire . This suggestion was published by the <unk> of <unk> in 1995 , and they also reassigned it to the genus <unk> , now combined with the specific epithet solitarius from de <unk> @-@ <unk> ' 1848 binomial for the solitaire . The authors pointed out that the contemporary descriptions matched the appearance and behaviour of an ibis more than a member of the Raphinae , especially since a fragment of a comparatively short and straight ibis mandible was discovered in 1994 , and because ibis remains were abundant in some localities ; it would be strange if contemporary writers never mentioned such a relatively common bird , whereas they mentioned most other species subsequently known from fossils . 
