Cabalus modestus mount from the collection of Auckland MuseumIllustration from 1907
The Chatham rail and the
sympatric on the Chatham Islands. Their sympatry suggests parallel evolution after separate colonisation of the Chatham Islands by different rail ancestors.[4] A genetic analysis from 1997 suggested that the two were sister taxa.[5] However more recent genetic analysis finds them to not be closely related within the Gallirallus radiation, with a 2014 analysis finding the Chatham rail being sister taxon to the possibly extinct New Caledonian rail instead.[6]
Taxidermied chick collected in 1872
Extinction
It became extinct on the island between 1896 and 1900. The species is also known from 19th century bones from Chatham and Pitt Islands. It is likely to have occurred in
^Trewick SA. 1997. Flightlessness and phylogeny amongst endemic rails (Aves: Rallidae) of the New Zealand region. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 352:429–446.
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Lateral view
Dorsal view
Ventral view
Oblique view
Media related to Gallirallus modestus at Wikimedia Commons
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