Dubois' description was as follows: wild pigeons, everywhere full with them, some with slaty-coloured feathering [Alectroenas?

As the pink pigeon and the Malagasy turtle dove cannot be firmly placed in either of these two genera but apparently represent a distinct lineage that diverged early, probably from the ancestor of Streptopelia, it seems (at least for the time being) to be best to separate them again in Nesoenas.

Willem Ysbrandtszoon Bontekoe mentioned ramiers (doves) with blue wings in 1619 as being abundant; apparently a species of Alectroenas.

Either the ramiers or the tourterelles of Dubois could refer to a local population of the Madagascar turtle dove, possibly an extinct subspecies, which is known from one subfossil humerus and one ulna.

The last reports of native pigeons were by Père Bernardin in 1687 and by Guillaume Houssaye in 1689, although the Alectroenas may have existed for a somewhat longer time.