He earned the moniker "mushroom guru" for his research on mushrooms, and even has a mushroom named after him.

But 88-year-old Samuel Ristich's real claim to fame for Bermudians is as the "discoverer" of the Cahow in 1945.

Mr. Ristich was working as a navigator with the US Army Air Corps on Coopers Island when he came across the bird which was supposed to have gone extinct in 1650.

"Each morning I'd run for about an hour and it was on one of these mornings that I found this bird that had been freshly killed," he explained.

"So my friend and I stuffed it."

A week later he found bird bones identified to be Cahow bones.

He took his stuffed bird to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. where it was positively identified as a Cahow.

It was in fact the second Cahow found in Bermuda since its near extinction. But the first, discovered by Louis Mowbray in 1906, was not identified until much later.

"I went to see Dr. Cushman Murphy at the museum in New York City and told him that we had a bird that was identified to be the missing Cahow. He didn't believe me so he never came down, but in 1951 he came down to Bermuda and found five living birds."

David Wingate started his breeding programme on Nonsuch Island shortly after that discovery.

"Now he tells me that they have about 77 pairs of these Cahows mostly on Nonsuch Island. The wonderment for me is that 55 years later, Dr. Wingate is breeding these on Nonsuch Island."

Mr. Ristich and Dr. Wingate have been corresponding over the years but the pair only met face to face this week.

"I haven't been back since (1945). I thought this was the last chance I had and Dr. Wingate urged me strongly to come."

Dr. Wingate could not be contacted by press time last night.