Hypotaenidia dieffenbachii (Dieffenbach's Rail)

[Deleted]

Hi !

This was believed to be a subspecies of the Banded Rail (Gallirallus philippensis) but as You can see the bird is quite different from the Banded Rail.

Bye Alex

[another specialist]

also known as Rallus dieffenbachii or Rallus philippensis dieffenbachii

[another specialist]

Family/Sub-family RALLIDAE

Species name author (Gray, 1843)

Taxonomic source(s) Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993)

Summary Gallirallus dieffenbachii was endemic to Chatham, Mangere and Pitt Islands, New Zealand3. It is known from the type, in Tring2, with one other specimen reported to be in Bremen1, and from abundant subfossil material5. The species was already scarce when the type was collected in 1840, and was extinct by 1872, presumably due to predation by introduced rats, cats and dogs, and habitat loss from fire3.


www.birdlife.net/datazone/search/species_search.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=2860&m=0

[sebbe67]

www.rsnz.org/publish/jrsnz/1997/24.pdf

[sebbe67]

Reached a size of 28cm.

The man which discovered it wrote in 1843: "It was formely very common, but since cats and dogs have been introduced it has become very scarce. The natives call it Meriki and catch it with the nooses. I often heard its shrill voice in the bushes, and after much trouble obtained a living specimen".

The bird had adapted to life in the cover of tussock grass and probe-feeding, and nested among the tussocks. Introduced cats, rats dogs and fires is the reasons why it become extinct.

Source: The Doomsday book

[sebbe67]

The rail in its typical habitat

Source: The Doomsday book

[sebbe67]

collections.tepapa.govt.nz/welcome.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fobjectsearch.aspx (found by adzebill)

[another specialist]

Year Assessed 2004
Assessor/s BirdLife International
Evaluator/s Stattersfield, A. (BirdLife International Red List Authority) & Brooks, T. (Conservation International)

Justification

Dieffenbach's Rail Gallirallus dieffenbachii was endemic to Chatham, Mangere and Pitt Islands, New Zealand. It is known from the type, in Tring, with one other specimen reported to be in Bremen1, and from abundant subfossil material. The species was already scarce when the type was collected in 1840, and was extinct by 1872, presumably due to predation by introduced rats, cats and dogs, and habitat loss from fire. Taxonomy Molecular and osteologica data demonstrate that the species was distinct from Buff-banded Rail G. philippensis.
History 1988 - Extinct (BirdLife International 2004)
1994 - Extinct (Groombridge 1994)
2000 - Extinct (BirdLife International 2000)

Range Gallirallus dieffenbachii was endemic to Chatham, Mangere and Pitt Islands, New Zealand3. It is known from the type, in Tring2, with one other specimen reported to be in Bremen1, and from abundant subfossil material5. The species was already scarce when the type was collected in 1840, and was extinct by 1872, presumably due to predation by introduced rats, cats and dogs, and habitat loss from fire3.

www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/8874/all

[another specialist]

sebbe67 said:

www.rsnz.org/publish/jrsnz/1997/24.pdf

[another specialist]

sebbe67 said:

www.rsnz.org/publish/jrsnz/1997/24.pdf

A great pdf file worth a read definately

Sympatric flightless rails Gallirallus dieffenbachii and
G. modestus on the Chatham Islands, New Zealand;
morphometrics and alternative evolutionary scenarios
Steven A. Trewick*
The extinct rails Gallirallus dieffenbachii and G modestus were sympatric on at least
three islands of the Chatham group Morphological and genetic evidence indicates that
they evolved from the same volant ancestor, putatively the banded rail, G phihppensis
Morphometnc analyses were used to compare these three species and the New Zealand
flightless weka, G austrahs It is evident that both the Chatham rails were flightless,
and each had undergone significant changes in body shape relative to G phihppensis
G dieffenbachii was similar in overall form to the weka and most other flightless
Gallirallus spp , being larger than G phihppensis in all except the wings It is possible
that G dieffenbachii was a generahst feeder, as is the weka G modestus was a
considerably smaller bird with a long beak that is presumably evidence of the evolution
of specialised feeding behaviour
General similarity between G dieffenbachii, G austrahs and most flightless members
of the group results from the parallel evolution of these species in allopatry, whereby a
more or less enlarged generahst feeder almost invariably results The ancestral stock of
G modestus is hypothesised to be the more recent arrival on account of specialisation
resulting from competition between the coloniser and the generahst resident, G
dieffenbachii A general principle is proposed by which the products of later colonisations
will be the more specialised through the additional selective effect of the earlier
occupant

[another specialist]

G. dieffenbachii Dieffenbach's Rail
That this taxon is a good species is established by Worthy and Holdaway (2002).
Extinct. Res formerly Chatham Is.

www.rosssilcock.com/

[Deleted]

from: Rails of the World: A Monograph of the Family Rallidae by S. Dillon Ripley and Fenwick Lansdowne

[another specialist]

rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/gallery/rsnz_06.html

[another specialist]

www.kersti.de

[Melanie]

Cabalus Dieffenbachii. (Dieffenbach's Rail.)

 Rallus dieffenbachii, Gray in Dieff. Trav. ii., App. p. 197 (1843). 
 Ocydromus dieffenbachii, Gray, Voy. Ereb. and Terror, p. 14, pl. 15 (1844).

 Hypotænidia dieffenbachii, Bonap. C. R. xliii. p. 599 (1856).

 Hypotænidia dieffenbachii, Gray, Ibis, 1862, p. 238.

 Rallus dieffenbachii, Buller, Birds of New Zealand, 1st ed. p. 179 (1873).
Native name.—Moeriki.
Ad.suprà brunnescenti-olivaceus, ochraceo et nigricante irregulariter transversim fasciatus: dorso postico
et uropygio olivascenti-brunneis, supracaudalibus aureo-fulvo transfasciatis: pileo summo brunneo
unicolore: strigâ, longâ superciliari, genis et gutture toto cinereis: strigâ alterâ a basi maxillæ per oculum
ductâ brunnescenti-castaneâ: tectricibus alarum dorso concoloribus: remigibus castaneis, nigro
transnotatis, versus apicem brunnescentibus, secundariies intimis dorso concoloribus, fulvo notatis:
rectricibus olivascenti-brunneis, unicoloribus: collo laterali inferiore et pectore superiore nigris albido
transfasciatis: pectore fulvescenti-ochraceo, nigro transfasciato: corpore reliquo subtùs nigro, albo
transversim lineato: subcaudalibus latiùs fulvo transfasciatis: rostro brunneo, versus basin saturatiore:
pedibus pallidè brunneis: iride rufescenti-brunneâ.
Adult.Crown and nape dark rusty brown; sides of the head and the whole of the throat pale ash-grey,
the former traversed by a broad band of rusty brown, which, commencing at the base of the upper
mandible, passes across and under the eyes and thence downwards, changing on the ear-coverts to
chestnut, and meeting in a broad band of that colour on the lower part of the hind neck; towards the base
of the lower mandible, and a streak over the eyes, greyish white; on the fore neck a zone of black with
rayed lines of white, bordering the ash-grey, and widening out on the sides into a rounded patch; neck
beyond and the whole of the breast bright rufous brown, with narrow transverse bands of black;
shoulders and all the upper part of the back fulvous brown varied with black, beautifully barred and
spotted with pale rufous brown; lower part of back and rump dark fulvous brown, plumbeous beneath;
underparts black, handsomely fasciated with white on the upper part of the abdomen, sides of the body
and flanks, less distinctly so and tipped with fulvous on the lower part of abdomen and soft ventral
feathers; under tail-coverts black, broadly barred with rufous brown; primaries bright chestnut, with
numerous transverse bars of brownish black and tipped with olive-brown; secondaries much browner,
with the chestnut considerably diminished and assuming the form of broad toothed markings on both
vanes; wing-coverts similar to the plumage of the back, but largely tinged with chestnut; tail-feathers dark
rusty brown, with rufous margins in their basal portion. Examined individually, the feathers of the back are
blackish brown, crossed by two broad undulating bands of fulvous; those of the breast have the bands
broader and more regular; those covering the abdomen and sides of the body are black, with two
equidistant bars and a narrow terminal margin of white. Irides reddish brown; bill light brown, darker
towards the tip; tarsi and toes light brown. Total length 12·25 inches; wing, from flexure, 4·75; tail 3·25;
bill, along the ridge 1·45, along the edge of lower mandible 1·5; tarsus 1·5; middle toe and claw 1·75;
hind toe and claw ·6.
Thisbeautiful Rail was brought from the Chatham Islands by Dr. Dieffenbach in 1842, and named by Mr.
Gray in compliment to this enterprising naturalist. The adult specimen in the British Museum, from which my description was taken, is unique, and seems likely to remain so.
In answer to my inquiries, a Chatham-Island correspondent, Kirihipu Roiri Te Rangipuahoaho, wrote as
follows in August 1863:—“Na, ko to kupu mo te manu. I ngaro tera manu, to Moeriki, i te torn o nga tau
i noho ai nga Maori ki tenei moutere. Mehemea kei te ora taua manu, maku e hopu atu mau. He manu
pai taua manu. I kite au imua i taku tamarikitanga. Ta nga Maori ingoa o taua manu he Popotai.” [
Translation.—Now with regard to the bird. This bird, the Moeriki, disappeared in the third year after the
occupation of this island by the Maoris. If the bird still survives I will catch you some. It was a beautiful
bird. I remember seeing it when I was a boy. The Maoris called it a Popotai.] But my friend Roiri,
although he had the stimulus of a handsome reward, never succeeded in finding the Moeriki; and we may
therefore conclude that it is extremely rare, if not quite extinct, on the main island.
In this very interesting form the plumage bears a strong family likeness, in the style and distribution of the
markings, to that of the well-known Rallus philippensis; but, as will be seen from the figures given
below, its bill is more Ocydromine in its character.
It has been conclusively shown that the skeleton of the Rail described by Hutton under the name of
Cabalus modestus (regarded in my former edition as the young of Rallus dieffenbachii ) differs widely
from that of Rallus , especially in the character of the sternum; and as we find here the same modification
in the bill, I think the proper course will be to place Dieffenbach's Rail in Hutton's new genus, as indeed
Mr. Sharpe has already done in his Supplement to the Birds of the ‘Voy. Ereb. and Terr.’ (p. 29). It
ought, however, to be remembered that Mr. G. R. Gray had long before proposed to refer this form to
the genus Ocydromus.
Of the last-named group I have treated fully in my accounts of the five species inhabiting New Zealand.
Another allied species, Ocydromus sylvestris (Sclater), is confined to Lord Howe's Island, a small
insular district whose zoological relation to New Zealand has already been discussed in my Introduction.
It is very curious that at the Chatham Islands, lying, as it were, between these points, a generically
different Ocydromine from should present itself. The New-Caledonia Rail ( Eulabeornis lafresnayanus
), although aberrant, comes even nearer to our Ocydromus
*In general appearance it is not unlike Ocydromus fuscus in plumage, but it has a much larger bill, which
is slightly curved as in O. sylvestris from Lord Howe's Island. Layard writes (Ibis, 1882, p.
535):—“This queer Rail is, though generally distributed, a rare bird in New Caledonia. It appears to
inhabit much the same localities as the Kagou, and is, in fact, a ‘Woodhen,’ like the Weka, and not a
swamp-bird. We have kept it in confinement, feeding it on Bulimi , raw meat, and garbage. It is
nocturnal, and runs with great rapidity. In walking it elevates the tail with the peculiar flip common to the
Rails, and it can climb and jump like a cat. If alarmed it will squeeze itself into the smallest holes and
crevices and lic ‘perdue’ and motionless, feigning death for a long time.”
. The bill is more attenuated, and the tail (in all the specimens I have examined) is very inconspicuous,
but the general characters are very similar, and the legs and feet are the same, although somewhat more
slender.

Source: Fuller: A History of the Birds of New Zealand.

[another specialist]

Extinct birds : an attempt to unite in one volume a short account of those birds which have become extinct in historical times : that is, within the last six or seven hundred years : to which are added a few which still exist, but are on the verge of extinction (1907)

[another specialist]

Extinct birds : an attempt to unite in one volume a short account of those birds which have become extinct in historical times : that is, within the last six or seven hundred years : to which are added a few which still exist, but are on the verge of extinction (1907)

[another specialist]

A review of the extinct rails of the New Zealand region (Aves: Rallidae) (National Museum of New Zealand records)

by Storrs L Olson (Author)

[surroundx]

"Of the total number in the catalogue which have now been ascertained to belong to the Islands, my son obtained specimens of thirty-eight species, but was unable to procure species of Ardea sacra, Ardea poiciloptera, Limosa uropygialis, Rallus dieffenbachii, and Anas chlorotis, whilst the memoranda are silent as to others which he did obtain, and notably as to Diomedea exulans, Thalassidroma nereis, and Haladroma berardii." (p. 213)

Source:

Travers, H. H. and Travers, W. T. L. (1872). On the birds of the Chatham Islands, with introductory remarks on the avifauna and flora of the islands in their relation to those of New Zealand. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 5: 212-222.

[Peter]

Scientific Name: Hypotaenidia dieffenbachii
Species Authority: (Gray, 1843)
Common Name(s):
English – Dieffenbach's Rail
Synonym(s):
Gallirallus dieffenbachii (Gray, 1843)
Taxonomic Notes:
Hypotaenidia dieffenbachii (del Hoyo and Collar 2014) was previously placed in the genus Gallirallus.

Citation:
BirdLife International 2012. Hypotaenidia dieffenbachii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 30 November 2014.
www.iucnredlist.org/details/full/22692455/0