 The first subfossil bird remains on Réunion were found in 1974 , and assigned to a stork , Ciconia 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 flamingos . In 1987 , subfossils of a recently extinct species of ibis from Réunion were described as Borbonibis latipes , and thought related to the bald ibises of the genus Geronticus . 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 describers , Francois Moutou , that the subfossils may have been of the Réunion solitaire . This suggestion was published by the describers of Borbonibis in 1995 , and they also reassigned it to the genus Threskiornis , now combined with the specific epithet solitarius from de Sélys @-@ Longchamps ' 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 . 
