Hawkins's Rail or Giant Chatham Island Rail, Diaphorapteryx
hawkinsi, was a flightless extinct bird endemic to the Chatham
Islands east of New Zealand. It is known to have existed only on
the main islands of Chatham Island and Pitt Island. It is
largely known from skeletal remains found in the kitchen middens
of the original Polynesian inhabitants, the Moriori. The bird
was approximately 16 inches tall and weighed about 4.5 pounds
(2.0 kg) and is thought to have been primarily an insectivore.
It was long thought that the Hawkins's Rail was extinct prior to
European discovery, however recent evidence suggests that the
bird may have become extinct much later. An 1895 letter
belonging to financier/zoologist Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild
describes the appearance, behaviour, and Moriori hunting method
concerning the species. -
http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/objectDetails.aspx?oid=541832
Te Papa collection online - Cabalus modestus; paratype |This
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