 Confusion over the colouration of the Mascarene parrot has also been furthered by a plate by French engraver François-Nicolas Martinet in Buffon's 1779 "Histoire Naturelle Des Oiseaux", the first coloured illustration of this species.It shows the bird as brown with a purplish head, and the strength of these colours differs considerably between copies, a result of having been hand-coloured by many different artists who worked under Martinet in his workshop.Across these copies, the body ranges from chestnut brown to greyish chocolate, the tail from light grey to blackish grey-brown, and the head from bluish grey to dove-grey.