Macquarie bandage rail
| Macquarie bandage rail | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Gallirallus philippensis macquariensis | ||||||||||||
| ( Hutton , 1879) |
The Macquarie pipe rail ( Gallirallus philippensis macquariensis ) is an extinct subspecies of the pipe rail that was endemic to Macquarie Island south of New Zealand .
Taxonomy
The Macquarie bandage rail was described by Frederick Wollaston Hutton in 1879 . 1965 This Rail was in the IUCN Red List of IUCN received, but later canceled after the American ornithologist James Cowan Greenway merely as a population of New Zealand in 1967 subspecies Gallirallus philippensis assimilis has classified. Due to the differences between the two taxa , however, the classifications of Walter Reginald Brook Oliver (1955) and Sidney Dillon Ripley (1977) are followed today and the Macquarie spider rail is treated as a valid subspecies.
description
In contrast to the bandage rail, it was darker, had fewer light spots and stripes, a broader reddish-brown chest band and a smaller beak. The smaller wings suggest that she was flightless . The weight was about 170 grams.
Way of life
Little is known about the Macquarie's way of life. A sailor's travelogue from 1821 may refer to this bird. Therein "widgeons" (or "tussock fowls") are mentioned, which lived in the tussock grass , were flightless and therefore easy to catch.
die out
In 1879 rabbits were released on Macquarie Island , which destroyed much of the island's vegetation. Introduced wekarallen and house cats sealed the extinction of the rail, which was no longer detected after 1890. Today three museum specimens are known, two of which are in the Natural History Museum and one in the Otago Museum . In addition, there are seven subfossil bones in the museum collections.
literature
- Oliver, WRB (1955): New Zealand Birds . AH and AW Reed. Wellington. ISBN 0-589-00851-X
- Greenway, James C., Jr. (1967): Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World, 2nd edition : Dover, New York. ISBN 0-486-21869-4
- Ripley, SD (1977): Rails of the World - A Monograph of the Family Rallidae . Boston. ISBN 0-87474-804-6
- Day, D. (1981): The Doomsday Book of Animals . Ebury Press, London. ISBN 0-670-27987-0
- Tennyson, A. & Martinson, P. (2006): Extinct Birds of New Zealand ; Te Papa Press, Wellington, New Zealand. ISBN 978-0-909010-21-8