Bevere and his mysterious rail (1 Viewer)

Since late September there is an illustration in the internet that shows a rail that was painted by Pieter Cornelius de Bevere in the 1750s. De Bevere painted mainly animals from his home Ceylon. The mystery is that neither the provenance nor the identity of this rail seems to be clear. So who has an idea?

https://feathersandthoughtsblog.wordpress.com/2018/09/25/beveres-rail/

It is a juvenile White-breasted Waterhen with traces of black chick down on the head.
Compare:
http://orientalbirdimages.org/images/data/waterhen_copy3.jpg
http://orientalbirdimages.org/images/data/whitebreasted_waterhenjuvenilescomposite7a.jpg
http://orientalbirdimages.org/images/data/whitebreasted_waterhen.jpg
http://orientalbirdimages.org/images/data/whitebreastedwaterhenamaurornisphoenicurus.jpg
http://orientalbirdimages.org/images/data/wbwh100905a_lky.jpg

Well if that's supposed to be WbW, then the artist must have done it in the dark!

I know they usually did these from skins then but length of neck is wrong, bill shape is wrong and legs are the wrong colour?

Note oversized legs of the bird. It first made me think of a chick (oversized legs would be normal for a half-grown rail chick).

From your answers I have currently two assumptions.

Either this is indeed a White-breasted Waterhen and it is the worst depiction Bevere ever made. Or it is an unknown (maybe extinct) rail from an offshore island.

Honestly, this is a reasonably accurate half-grown White-breasted Waterhen, changing from chick to juvenile. All characters are in place. Even the shortish backside, a result of not grown wings and tail.

The error is interpreting an 18. century drawing in convention of 21. century bird guidebooks. The bird is a partially grown chick. But it was wrongly interpreted as an adult, because today bird books don't paint intermediate plumages. The black area on the head is chick down, which is black in all rails. It is wrongly interpreted as black mask of feathers.

I can eventually agree that it is half-grown chick of another Sri Lankan rail species. Here the description of size of the bird (if present) would be decisive.

The bird depicted has a longish, fine bill, not deep-based, slightly down curved at the tip; a distinct black forehead and crown with the black continuing on behind the eye as a short stripe; the neck, nape throat and breast are evenly grey; the legs are grey, with a short thigh and a very long tarsus.

I am familiar with White-breasted Waterhen from some countries, though not Sri Lanka. I can't find any photos of it, though, that have any of the above features.

This picture by de Bevere may be relevant to discussion:
https://www.mediastorehouse.com/mar...namomeiventris-mocking-cliffchat-8613883.html
It appears to show a Slaty-legged Crake. Note the very long legs, with extremely short tibia and the fine and sharply pointed bill.

The bird linked in the first post also has long legs, but a larger part of this is made up of the tibia. For me, this implies that the tibia are longer than on Slaty-legged Crake. The toes are very long. The bill is deeper and blunter than on the crake. Also, the wings on the crake are clear and well-illustrated - this is not the case on the mystery rail (suggesting that it is flightless, or that it is a downy young).

I agree with Jurek on this, that a White-breasted Waterhen chick may be the best option. It's not a great illustration of one, especially the neck/head shape and the head pattern. But perhaps if this individual was painted from life rather than from a skin there is more chance of an error.
Young waterhens do have grey legs, so that isn't a problem. A blacker head and browner rear body would fit a transitional plumage. The white cheek spot may also explain what seems to be a white eye on the mystery bird.
https://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/photos/12427738/

As yet, no-one has made an suggestion for any alternative identification for this bird, or even an alternative suggestion to which genus it may belong.

Not an expert on Waterhens (or mysterious rails), but also compare Pieter Cornelius de Bevere's depicted bird (attached, from post #1) with the following photos; here, here and here (scroll down) ... ?!