Dieffenbach rail

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Dieffenbach rail
Dieffenbach rail (Gallirallus dieffenbachii)

Dieffenbach rail ( Gallirallus dieffenbachii )

Systematics
Sub-stem : Vertebrates (vertebrata)
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Crane birds (Gruiformes)
Family : Rallen (Rallidae)
Genre : Gallirallus
Type : Dieffenbach rail
Scientific name
Gallirallus dieffenbachii
( GR Gray , 1843)

The Dieffenbach rail ( Gallirallus dieffenbachii ) was a flightless rail of the Chatham Islands , Mangare Island and the Pitt Islands near New Zealand . The species has been extinct since 1872. The art epithet honors the German geologist Ernst Dieffenbach .

description

The back of the rail was olive brown and irregularly banded in sand and black. The upper back had black and brown horizontal stripes. The lower back was indistinctly streaked dark brown. The skull and neck were reddish brown. A maroon stripe ran from the beak over the eye to the back of the neck. There was a light gray stripe above the eyes, and the chin and throat were also light gray. The whitish-gray throat and the brown-banded chest were separated from one another by a band of black feathers with whitish tips. The upper abdomen was streaked black and white. The lower abdomen was black, the coverts black with red-brown banding.

Illustrations of the type show that the plumage of the binding Ralle ( Gallirallus phillipensis ) resembled amazing. However, it differs in some points from the adult dress of this type and corresponds there more to the youth dress of the bandage rail. Compared to the Chathamralle ( Gallirallus modestus ) this species had a more developed sternum. The length of the beak lay between that of the bandage rail and the chatham rail, the beak was curved downwards.

The Dieffenbach rail was 31 cm long and built larger and stronger than the binding rail. The beak of the Dieffenbach rail was roughly the same size in relation to the length of the skull, but stronger and more curved than that of the band rail. The proportions of the bones of the Dieffenbach rail are very similar to those of the Wekaralle , but the Wekaralle is significantly larger overall. The flight apparatus was reduced and the species was therefore unable to fly.

Way of life

The fact that the Dieffenbach rail was very similar to the Wekaralle in terms of its physique suggests that it was its ecological counterpart for the Chatham Islands. The Dieffenbach railroad probably lived in the forest, in areas overgrown with ferns and in fresh and salt water marshes and swamps. As a ground breeder, it was particularly endangered by cultivation of the fields, livestock and pasture farming.

Spread and extinction

The species lived on Chatham Island and on Mangare Island near Pitt Island, after bone finds it was formerly also on Pitt Island itself. A single specimen of the Dieffenbach rail was caught alive for the first and last time by Dieffenbach in 1840 and by Gray scientifically described, at that time the species was already rare on Chatham. The last record was made in 1872, the species probably died out due to the predation of introduced dogs, cats and rats as well as through bushfires that were set up to gain agricultural land.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Walter Lawry Buller (1838-1906): A History of the Birds of New Zealand. 1888
  2. a b c d Dieter Luther: The extinct birds of the world. 4th edition, unchanged reprint of the edition from 1986. Magdeburg: Westkarp-Wiss and Heidelberg: Spektrum Akad. Verlag. 1995
  3. ^ Ernest Dieffenbach, MD: Travels in New Zealand With Contributions to the Geography, Botany, and Natural History of that Country Vol. I. 1843, Capper reprint (facsimile), 1974
  4. a b c d T. H. Worthy and RN Holdaway: Quaternary fossil faunas from caves in Takaka Valley and on Takaka Hill, northwest Nelson, South Island, New Zealand. Journal of The Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 24, Number 3, September 1994, pp. 297-391
  5. a b Storrs L. Olson: A classification of the Rallidae. The Wilson Bulletin, Volume 85, Issue 4, December 1973

Web links

Commons : Dieffenbach-Ralle ( Gallirallus dieffenbachii )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files