Tahiti rail
Tahiti rail | |
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Early 1770s illustration by Georg Forster | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Gruiformes |
Family: | Rallidae |
Genus: | Hypotaenidia |
Species: | †H. pacifica
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Binomial name | |
†Hypotaenidia pacifica (Gmelin, JF, 1789)
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Location of Tahiti (red) and Mehetia (lower right), among the Society Islands | |
Synonyms | |
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The Tahiti rail, Tahitian red-billed rail, or Pacific red-billed rail (Hypotaenidia pacifica) is an
The Tahiti rail was 9 inches (23 centimetres) long, and its colouration was unusual for a rail. The underparts, throat, and eyebrow-like supercilium were white, and the upper parts were black with white dots and bands. The nape (or hind neck) was ferruginous (rust-coloured), the breast was grey, and it had a black band across the lower throat. The bill and iris were red, and the legs were fleshy pink. The Tahiti rail was supposedly flightless and nested on the ground. It is said to have been seen in open areas, marshes, and in coconut plantations. Its diet appears to have consisted mainly of insects and occasionally copra (coconut meat). The extinction of the Tahiti rail was probably due to predation by humans and introduced cats and rats. It appears to have become extinct some time after 1844 on Tahiti, and perhaps as late as the 1930s on Mehetia.
Taxonomy
The Tahiti rail was found on the
J. R. Forster indicated that the Tahiti rail was called Oomnaa or Eboonàa on Tahiti and neighbouring islands, and Oomèia-Keteòw on
The Tahiti rail has historically been confused with the extant Tongan subspecies of the
Along with the buff-banded rail and close relatives, the Tahiti rail has historically been placed in either the genus
Description
J. R. Forster stated the Tahiti rail was 9 inches (23 cm) long, which is small for a member of its genus. Its colouration was also striking and unusual for a rail and it was described as being an attractive bird. The upper parts were black with white dots and bands (also referred to as spots and bars), and the underparts, throat, and eyebrow-like supercilium were white. The nape (or hind neck) was ferruginous (rust-coloured), the breast was grey, and it had a black band across the lower throat. The bill and iris were red, and the legs were fleshy pink. The sexes were presumably similar, and the immature and juvenile were not described.[4][16]
Forster's original description of the bird follows below, in a translation from Latin published by the English naturalist
Black with white spots or bars; abdomen, throat, and eyebrow white; hind neck ferruginous; breast grey; bill blood-red; iris red. Bill straight, compressed, narrowed at the top, thicker at the base, and blood-red. The mandibles subequal, pointed; the upper slightly curved, with the tip pale fuscous; gape medium. Nostrils almost at the base of bill, linear. Eyes placed above the gape of the mouth. Iris blood-red. Feet four-toed, split, built for running, flesh-coloured. Femora semi-bare, slender, of medium length. Tibiae slightly compressed, shorter than the femora. Four toes, slender, of which three point forward (are front toes). The middle one almost as long as the Tibia, the side ones of equal length shorter, the back one short, raised from the ground. Nails short, small, slightly incurved, pointed, and light coloured. Head oval, slightly depressed, fuscous. A superciliary line from bill to occiput whitish. Throat white. Hindneck ferruginous. Neck very short. Back and rump black, sparsely dotted with minute white dots. Breast bluish grey. Abdomen, crissum, and loins white. Wings short, wholly black, variegated with broken white bands. Remiges short. Rectrices extremely short, black spotted with white, hardly to be distinguished from the coverts.[6][17]
Forster also stated that the total length to the middle toe was 12.75 inches (324 mm) long, the bill was 1.1 inches (28 mm) long, the
Forster's plate (which Fuller described as "rather crude" yet "explicit") became the basis for other depictions of the bird, by artists such as
Behaviour and ecology
The Tahiti rail was supposedly flightless, and nested on the ground. Its social behaviour is unknown. Bruner claimed to have gained information about the behaviour of the species from "the few people who still remember the bird". According to Bruner, the call of the bird was described as similar to that of other rails, though it differed in ending in a high-pitched whistle. It was said to have been seen in open areas, sometimes with other rails in marshes, and in coconut plantations. Its diet appears to have consisted mainly of insects found in grass, and it occasionally fed on copra (coconut meat). Its broken colour pattern was said to make it blend well with its surroundings, and it lacked "shyness".[9][16]
Extinction
The extinction of the Tahiti rail was probably due to predation by humans and introduced cats and rats. The small, outlying islands off Tahiti also have rats, though there were no cats on Mehetia at the time of Greenway's writing in 1967.[2][4] According to Bruner, the bird was said to have been common on Tahiti until the end of the 19th century, beginning to decline thereafter; it had disappeared from there after 1844. It may have survived on the smaller, uninhabited island of Mehetia until the 1930s, perhaps due to the absence of cats.[16] This later date is accepted by the IUCN Red List.[1] Other extinct Tahitian birds include the Tahiti sandpiper and the black-fronted parakeet, and some species have disappeared from Tahiti itself but survive on other islands.[4] According to Olson, it is possible that hundreds of rail populations have become extinct from islands following the arrival of humans within the past 1500 years.[18]
References
- ^ . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8014-3954-4.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4081-5725-1.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-486-21869-4.
- ^ Gmelin, J. F. (1789): Systema Naturae (13th edition) 1, part 2: p. 717.
- ^ . Retrieved 8 December 2016.
- ^ a b Lysaght, A. (1953). "A rail from Tonga, Rallus philippensis ecaudata Miller, 1783". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 73: 74–75.
- .
- ^ a b Bruner, P. L. (1972). Birds of French Polynesia. Bishop Museum, Honolulu: Pacific Scientific Information Center. pp. 45–47.
- S2CID 83517404.
- S2CID 85940913.
- ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Flufftails, finfoots, rails, trumpeters, cranes, limpkin". World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-87474-804-8.
- hdl:10088/5228.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-873403-59-4.
- ^ a b c Rothschild, W. (1907). Extinct Birds. London: Hutchinson & Co. p. 123. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
- hdl:10088/12789.
External links
- Media related to Gallirallus pacificus at Wikimedia Commons
- Data related to Gallirallus pacificus at Wikispecies