What is "alopochen"

Alopochen is a genus of the bird family Anatidae, part of the subfamily Tadorninae along with the shelducks. It contains one extant species, the Egyptian goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca), and two or three species which became extinct in the last 1000 years or so. The Egyptian goose is native to mainland Africa, and the extinct species are from Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands.

mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data suggest that the relationships of Alopochen to Tadorna need further investigation.

The extinct species of the genus are:

• Malagasy shelduck or Madagascar shelduck, Alopochen sirabensis (may be subspecies of A. mauritiana) – Madagascar, prehistoric: see Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
• Mauritius sheldgoose, Alopochen mauritiana – Mauritius, late 1690s
• Réunion sheldgoose or Kervazo's Egyptian goose, Alopochen kervazoi – Réunion, c.1690s

The generic name looks like Greek ἀλώπηξ + χήν = "fox-goose", referring to the colour of its back, but with a Greek language error: the linguistically correct form would have been *Alopecchen or *Alopecochen.