Systematics, morphology and ecology of rails (Aves: Rallidae) of the Mascarene Islands, with one new species
Author
Hume, Julian Pender
text
Zootaxa
2019
2019-07-03
4626
1
1
107
journal article
26212
10.11646/zootaxa.4626.1.1
29c4832f-9970-4c9c-9bcb-2564407ac481
1175-5326
3335513
6CC12BAF-968F-4BDE-9315-340AF12A76EC
Genus
Hypotaenidia
Reichenbach, 1853
Buff-banded Rail
Hypotaenidia philippensis
(
Linnaeus, 1766
)
Rallus philippensis
:
Linnaeus, 1766
, p.263
Hypotaenidia pectoralis
(Lesson)
: E.
Newton, 1888
, p.552
Gallirallus philippensis
:
Olson, 1973
, p.397
Hypotaenidia philippensis
:
Dickinson & Remsen, 2013
, p. 155
; del
Hoyo & Collar, 2014
, p.344
Remarks:
There is a single record of Buff-banded Rail
Hypotaenidia philippensis
(
Linnaeus, 1766
)
, a male killed at Champ des Mars, near
Port Louis
, in 1863 and held at UMZC, but the month is not known (
Rountree
et al
. 1952: 180
;
Benson 1970: 171
). E.
Newton (1888: 552)
listed it as accidental, and the genus has not been recorded again in the Mascarenes, or anywhere else in the Indian Ocean (
Safford & Hawkins 2013
). Benson considered it to be the race
australis
(now synonymised under
H. p. mellori
(Taylor & van Perlo 1998)), but noted that the individual was heavily worn, with most of the feathers of the crown and rump missing and the wings incomplete. If a genuine vagrant, it is a unique and extremely rare one, as the nearest source populations of
H. philippensis
are the Moluccas and eastern Australia (Taylor & van Perlo 1998).