Abstract
Apalopteron familiare is a bird endemic to the Ogasawara Islands, and was first described by Kittlitz in 1831. However, as he did not indicate clearly a type locality, the island where he collected his type specimens was uncertain. The absence of any confirmed record of A. familiare from Chichijima since Kittlitz has led to the actual presence of this species in the Chichijima island group having been questioned. While reviewing old literature to assess the past distribution of A. familiare on Chichijima, we confirmed that Kittlitz did see A. familiare on Chichijima in 1828, indicating that A. familiare did once inhabit Chichijima but later became extinct.
