Hawkins's rail

Hawkins's rail
Skull from the collection of Auckland Museum

Extinct  (late-19th century)  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Gruiformes
Family: Rallidae
Genus: Diaphorapteryx
Species: D. hawkinsi
Binomial name
Diaphorapteryx hawkinsi
(Forbes, 1892)
Diaphorapteryx hawkinsi skeleton from the collection of Auckland Museum
Diaphorapteryx hawkinsi skeleton from the collection of Auckland Museum

Hawkins's rail or giant Chatham Island rail, Diaphorapteryx hawkinsi, was a flightless extinct bird endemic to the Chatham Islands south of New Zealand. It is known to have existed only on the main islands of Chatham Island and Pitt Island. It is largely known from skeletal remains found in the kitchen middens of the original Polynesian inhabitants, the Moriori.

The bird was approximately 16 inches tall and weighed about 4.5 pounds (2.0 kg) and is thought to have been primarily an insectivore.

Henry Ogg Forbes originally placed the bird in the same genus as the red rail of Mauritius, Aphanapteryx, but later moved it to its own genus.[2][3]

It was long thought that the Hawkins's rail was extinct prior to European discovery, however recent evidence suggests that the bird may have become extinct much later. An 1895 letter belonging to financier/zoologist Walter Rothschild describes the appearance, behaviour, and Moriori hunting method concerning the species.

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Diaphorapteryx hawkinsi". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. ↑ FORBES, H- O. (1892). "New Extinct Rail". Nature. 45 (1166): 416. doi:10.1038/045416d0.
  3. ↑ FORBES, H. O. (1893). "Mr. H. O. Forbes's Discoveries in the Chatham Islands". Nature. 48 (1232): 126. doi:10.1038/048126a0.


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