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Hawkins's Rail
Diaphorapteryx hawkinsi (Forbes, HO, 1892)
Rallidae — Rails, Crakes & Coots
Hawkins's Rail, Diaphorapteryx hawkinsi, lived on the Chatham Islands east of New Zealand, with records from Chatham Island and Pitt Island. It was an extinct rail and the largest land bird native to those islands. The bird had a long, down-curved bill. It is also known as the giant Chatham Island rail, and the Moriori name mehonui has been linked to it. Skeletal remains have been recovered from Moriori kitchen middens, showing its presence in the islands’ human past.
- Order
- Gruiformes
- Family
- Rallidae — Rails, Crakes & Coots
- Breeding range
- Australasia: Chatham Is. (e of South I., New Zealand)
