Unidentified rail from Tonga ? (1 Viewer)

La Châtre museum, France, has an unidentified "gallinule" specimen:

Eighteenth century bird specimens in the Baillon Collection, La Châtre, France
Christophe Gouraud
Musée George Sand et de la Vallée Noire, 71 rue Venose 36400 La Châtre, France. E-mail: [email protected]
Journal of the National Museum (Prague), Natural History Series
Vol. 183 (2): 19-27; published on 30 November 2014
ISSN 1802-6842 (print), 1802-6850 (electronic)
Copyright © Národní muzeum, Praha, 2014

MLC.2011.0.1170, Rallidae indet., 1791-1794, From “îles des Amis, Tonga Tabou” [i.e. Tongatapu]. Specimen in bad condition making its identification difficult. Given by Cuvier in 1821.

https://www.researchgate.net/public...ns_in_the_Baillon_Collection_La_Chatre_France

Inventaire de la Collection Baillon d'animaux naturalisés
La Châtre (Indre)
Rapport
QUEMIN Madeline
GOURAUD Christophe
Novembre 2010 – Novembre 2011

MLC.2011.0.1170 Gallinule poule-d'eau La Billardière (Recherche de La Pérouse) 1791-1794

http://christophe.gouraud.pagesperso-orange.fr/Images/PDF/Rapport Collection Baillon.pdf

Three photos of this specimen are visible on the site
Collections des musées de la Région Centre

https://webmuseo.com/ws/musees-regioncentre/app/collection/record/17289







A unidentified extinct species or a mislabelled specimen ?

Gallinula has a limited distribution in Pacific Ocean,
G.chloropus is not known beyond Philippines, Sulawesi and Lesser Sundas (ssp. orientalis) and is present in the Pacific only in Micronesia: Palau and Carolines (ssp.orientalis), Mariannas (endemic ssp.guami),
G.tenebrosa from Indonesia, N.Guinea and Australia is known in the Pacific only by recent breeding records from N.Britain (Bismarck Archipelago) and New Caledonia.

"La Châtre gallinule" would he be a specimen of the genus Pareudiastes ?

This genus is known by two critically endangered species, if not extinct, P.silvestris from Makira, Solomon Islands and
P.pacificus from Savaii, Western Samoa,
but also by subfossil bones from
Buka, Solomon Is (Lapita colonisation and avian extinctions in Oceania, Stuart Hawkins and Trevor H. Worthy, terra australis 52, 2019),
Viti Levu, Fiji (?Gallinula, The fossil rails (Aves: Rallidae) of Fiji with
descriptions of a new genus and species, Trevor H. Worthy, Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 2010)
and espacially from Eua, Tonga (?Gallinula, Biogeography of Tongan birds before and after human impact, DAVID W. STEADMAN, Proc. Nati. Acad. Sci. USA, 1993) between Solomon Islands, Fiji and Samoa.

???

Thanks for this contribution, it is very interesting.

There are some subfossil Rallidae from Tonga known:

Hypotaenidia vekamatolu (Kirchman et Steadman, 2005).
syn: Gallirallus vekamatolu Kirchman et Steadman, 2005
Holocene of, Tonga, ‘Eua
Jeremy J. Kirchman & David W. Steadman, 2005
Rails (Aves: Rallidae: Gallirallus) from Prehistoric Sites in the Kingdom of Tonga, Including a Description of a New Species
Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 118: 465-477

Hypotaenidia vavauensis Worthy et Burley, 2019.
Holocene of Tonga, Vava’u group, Vuna on Pangaimota Island
Trevor Henry Worthy & David V. Burley, 2019
Prehistoric Avifaunas from the Kingdom of Tonga
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society XX: 1-45

Hypotaenidia hypoleucus (Finsch et Hartlaub, 1867).
Holocene of, Tonga Islands, Tongatapu
David D. Medway, 2010
The Tongatapu Rail Gallirallus hypoleucus (Finsch & Hartlaub, 1867) - an Extinct Species Resurrected ?
Notornis 57: 199-203

Fred

Following the clue; "MLC.2011.0.1170 Gallinule poule-d'eau La Billardière (Recherche de La Pérouse) 1791-1794" (in post #1) I ended up in the English translation on Labillardière's An account of a voyage in search of La Pérouse, ..., vol II (1802) that incl. the following quote/s:

On the 24th of March, about seven in the morning, we were no more than three myriameters from Tongataboo; and yet ...

[...]

On the 26th of March, ... They sold us several birds; among others, a charming species of lory, which the assured us had been brought from Fidgi [today's Fiji]; ... the species of rail, named rallus [sic] philippensis; ...

[here, from pp. 91 resp. 105, in faint printing]​

Click to expand...

Note; I don't mean that this bird is (alt. should or even could be) a specimen of the Buff-banded Rail (Rallus/Gallirallus) Hypotaenidia philippensis (Linnaeus, 1766), but ... by the above, I think the specimen in question doesn't necessarily have to be originating from "Tonga Tabou” [alt. Tonga-taboo or Tongataboo, (in the English translation) i.e. today's Tongatapu, the main Island of the Kingdom of Tonga], even if received/obtained/bought there (as indicated by the socket label).

Just a thought, maybe worth considering?

Björn

PS. Maybe the Original French Edition, from the same voyage, can shed some light on the identity, or add some pieces, regarding this obscure bird? If so it ought to be found in either one of these books. All in French (incomprehensible to me ).

If we (just for the fun of it) follow this line of thought (that it might/could be originating from elsewhere), and look at the species in Rallidae (in this case for Fiji) we find the following (according to Avibase/IOC, 10.2):

• Buff-banded Rail Hypotaenidia philippensis
• Bar-winged Rail Hypotaenidia poeciloptera Extinct endemic (last reported 1973)
• Black-backed Swamphen Porphyrio indicus
• Australasian Swamphen Porphyrio melanotus
• Spotless Crake Zapornia tabuensis
• White-browed Crake Poliolimnas cinereus

Neither one seems a good match to the bird on those photos, though also worth keeping in mind is that juvenile "rails" (crakes, coots, and gallinules) often differ quite significant from adult ones.

I guess the simplest way to find out the true origin, and the identity, of this "unidentified 'gallinule' specimen" would be to extract a DNA sample.

Or has this already been tried?

/B

Calalp said:

If we (just for the fun of it) follow this line of thought (that it might/could be originating from elsewhere), and look at the species in Rallidae (in this case for Fiji) we find the following (according to Avibase/IOC, 10.2):

• Buff-banded Rail Hypotaenidia philippensis
• Bar-winged Rail Hypotaenidia poeciloptera Extinct endemic (last reported 1973)
• Black-backed Swamphen Porphyrio indicus
• Australasian Swamphen Porphyrio melanotus
• Spotless Crake Zapornia tabuensis
• White-browed Crake Poliolimnas cinereus

Neither one seems a good match to the bird on those photos, though also worth keeping in mind is that juvenile "rails" (crakes, coots, and gallinules) often differ quite significant from adult ones.

I guess the simplest way to find out the true origin, and the identity, of this "unidentified 'gallinule' specimen" would be to extract a DNA sample.

Or has this already been tried?

/B

Click to expand...

There is another Rallidae from from Fiji:

Vitirallus watlingi Worthy, 2004
Quaternary of Fiji

Literature:

Trevor H. Worthy, 2004
The Fossil Rails (Aves: Rallidae) of Fiji with Descriptions of a New Genus and Species
Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 34(3): 295-314

Fred

Calalp said:

PS. Maybe the Original French Edition, from the same voyage, can shed some light on the identity, or add some pieces, regarding this obscure bird? If so it ought to be found in either one of these books. All in French (incomprehensible to me ).

Click to expand...

The French text gives the same information as the English translation (the main difference being it uses the Republican calendar). Pp. 92 and 105 of vol. 2.

There are only three rails on Tonga. Spotless crake is tiny, Australasian Swamphen has thick, powerful bill. Buff-banded rail has roughly similar bill, but seems to lose its black down plumage when still quite small and gets very different colors (https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/193633291). There are several extralimital Asian rails which could, possibly, look like this photo when badly stuffed.

I agree this is a fascinating possibility that it is an unknown, possibly extinct species native to Tonga and may be worth of a DNA study. Even if it is explained as something mundane, it would be worth publishing it, as not to create a birding legend. I would be interested to hear more.

jurek said:

Buff-banded rail has roughly similar bill, but seems to lose its black down plumage when still quite small and gets very different colors (https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/193633291).

Click to expand...

The legs of that bird are also nothing like those of a buff-banded rail -- just look at that rear toe. (But they might easily be those of a Gallinula, indeed.)
Is the white visible on the upper flanks, on the profile shot, feather colour, or dry skin that can be seen through the feathers...?

A specimen of the Buff-banded Rail Hypotaenidia (Gallirallus) philippensis (Linnaeus, 1766) also exists in the Baillon collection.

https://webmuseo.com/ws/musees-regioncentre/app/collection/record/17260

It is hard to see details, but it could be also, for example, the Watercock from South Asia. Is it uniformly black, or not wholly so?
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/206190271
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/63547401
Is it missing its tail, and the thing at the end is a wire sticking out?

The most obvious contenders fo vagrancy would be White-breasted Waterhen Amaurornis phoenicurus and Watercock Gallicrex cinerea?

http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ID=781&Bird_Image_ID=60411

Edit: Cross posted with jurek

andyadcock said:

The most obvious contenders fo vagrancy would be White-breasted Waterhen Amaurornis phoenicurus and Watercock Gallicrex cinerea?

http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ID=781&Bird_Image_ID=60411

Edit: Cross posted with jurek

Click to expand...

Sure, though I'm not aware of any records for either of those closer than Palau, which is a looooong way away from Tonga. (But Rails are weird when it comes to vagrancy.)

I think the bird is too small for a male Gallicrex, and the apparent total lack of scaliness on the upperparts would at best be surprising for this species.
Is it really possible for an Amaurornis phoenicurus (of an age making it able to fly) to show such a completely dark foreneck, throat and chin ? I'm quite certain that a frontal view of the bird shown on the pic attached by Andy would show a lot of white on these parts.

"La Châtre gallinule" would he be a specimen of the genus Pareudiastes ?

This genus is known by two critically endangered species, if not extinct, P.silvestris from Makira, Solomon Islands and
P.pacificus from Savaii, Western Samoa,
but also by subfossil bones from
Buka, Solomon Is (Lapita colonisation and avian extinctions in Oceania, Stuart Hawkins and Trevor H. Worthy, terra australis 52, 2019),
Viti Levu, Fiji (?Gallinula, The fossil rails (Aves: Rallidae) of Fiji with
descriptions of a new genus and species, Trevor H. Worthy, Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 2010)
and espacially from Eua, Tonga (?Gallinula, Biogeography of Tongan birds before and after human impact, DAVID W. STEADMAN, Proc. Nati. Acad. Sci. USA, 1993) between Solomon Islands, Fiji and Samoa.

I can't see a watercock or waterhen in this bird, it seems more like a Makira or Samoan Moorhen as quoted above, let's hope they can get some DNA from it.

l_raty said:

I think the bird is too small for a male Gallicrex, and the apparent total lack of scaliness on the upperparts would at best be surprising for this species.
Is it really possible for an Amaurornis phoenicurus (of an age making it able to fly) to show such a completely dark foreneck, throat and chin ? I'm quite certain that a frontal view of the bird shown on the pic attached by Andy would show a lot of white on these parts.

Click to expand...

There's been at least one Gallinule, running around a UK dock (it got run over and killed IIRC?) so ship assisted perhaps, rendering the ability to fly, moot and if a Sheathbill can make it to the UK (another dock area bird, subsequently, repatriated) then why not!

Appearance of this specimen re 'lack of scaling' may simply be due to age and condition?

It might be interesting to know whether there were cases of mislabled specimens from the Baillon Collection. All known extinct rail species from Tonga were wiped out during the Lapita culture.

It would be interesting to see more detailed photos of this specimen, for example the head (does it have a frontal shield?) legs, body (is it uniformly black? How long are the wings? Is it missing its tail?).

A quick look at the specimen of Samoan moorhen/woodhen Gallinula/Pareudiastes pacifica below shows a bird with apparently more feathered tibia and thicker legs:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/...pacifica_-_Rallidae_-_bird_skin_specimen.jpeg

It looks like the French bird has lost feathers from both its tibiae though (judging from the pale colour, which is similar to the bare patches on the neck).
I am afraid it is indeed not an extant species...

Just in case. The French specimen looks clearly larger than the Buff-banded Rail. No living birder saw Samoan Moorhen Pareudiastes pacificus or Makira Moorhen Pareudiastes silvestris, but the Birdlife text states sizes of 25 and 27 cm, which are less than the Buff-banded Rail ca 28 cm.

Here is some additional information that Christophe Gouraud https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christophe_Gouraud/publications,
the author of the articles on the Baillon collection, communicated to me:

For information, for 2 years, the ornithological collection has been moved as a whole to new reserves and to my knowledge no specimen is exposed to the public at the moment.

Regarding the Tonga Rallidae, here is where it stands:

1.during the inventory of the Baillon collection in 2010 and 2011, this specimen was recorded as Gallinula sp. At that time, my colleague and I had relatively little time to get to the bottom of it, the priority then being the inventory and the shooting of the specimens.

2. As I began to delve deeper into this specimen, I first came to think that it may be a Pareudiastes. But looking closely at the plumage, we notice the presence of some white feathers on one of the flanks of the bird, a white line typical of the flanks of the genus Gallinula. The literature specifies that, during molting, this white line can be barely perceptible or even completely absent. On the other hand, this line is less conspicuous in some species, notably G. tenebrosa. The poor general condition of the specimen (over 220 years old) unfortunately does not help (a priori missing tail, very damaged wings, plucked neck, absent rhamphotecus ...). Note here that the global Birds of the World project (https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/home) includes the genus Pareudiastes in the genus Gallinula (i.e. Gallinula pacifica and Gallinula sylvestris).

3.As you rightly point out, the range of the genus Gallinula in the Pacific is limited. Even if, in recent years, the archipelago of the Tonga Islands, like the surrounding archipelagos, has yielded numerous fossil and sub-fossil remains of birds belonging to the Rallidae (cf. the work of Steadman), we must not rule out the hypothesis of a bad labeling of the specimen and consequently an erroneous collection locality. Added to this is the somewhat tortuous path taken by the natural history objects collected by Labillardière during the expedition led by D'Entrecasteaux in search of La Pérouse between 1791 and 1794. The collections were confiscated by the Dutch. (Batavia), then by the English (on the way back to Europe) before arriving in London where Joseph Banks had the intelligence and the honor to return them to Labillardière who deposited them at the MNHN in Paris ... only in 1816/1818 !!!

4.All these elements lead me to believe that the only solution to be able (perhaps) to answer the question of the identity of this specimen is the DNA study: extract the DNA from the specimen and compare it to that of others species / subspecies of the genus Gallinula and why not also to species of the genus Pareudiastes; which is not won because very few specimens of this kind exist in museums and I am not sure that we authorize a tissue sample ... we are not there!