The Kosrae crake or Kusaie Island crake (''Zapornia monasa''), sometimes also stated as Kittlitz's rail, is an extinct bird from the family

Rallidae Rails (avian family Rallidae) are a large, Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan family (biology), family of small- to medium-sized terrestrial and/or semi-amphibious birds. The family exhibits considerable diversity in its forms, and includes ...

. It occurred on the island of

Kosrae Kosrae ( ), formerly known as Kusaie or Strong's Island, is an island in the Caroline Islands archipelago, and States of Micronesia, state within the Federated States of Micronesia. It includes the main island of Kosrae, traditionally known as Ual ...

and perhaps on

Ponape Ponape may refer to: *Pohnpei Pohnpei (formerly known as Ponape or Ascension, from Pohnpeian: "upon (''pohn'') a stone altar (''pei'')") is an island of the Senyavin Islands which are part of the larger Caroline Islands group. It belongs to ...

in the south-western Pacific which belong both to the

Caroline Islands The Caroline Islands (or the Carolines) are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the cen ...

. Its preferred habitat were coastal swamps and marshland covered with

taro Taro (; ''Colocasia esculenta'') is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and Petiole (botany), petioles. Taro corms are a ...

plants (''Colocasia esculenta'').

Description

It was discovered in 1827 by

Heinrich von Kittlitz Friedrich Heinrich, Freiherr von Kittlitz (16 February 1799 – 10 April 1874) was a Prussian artist, naval officer, explorer and naturalist. He was a descendant of a family of old Prussian nobility ("Freiherr" meaning "independent lord" - ranking ...

. Von Kittlitz described its plumage as general black with bluish gloss. The quills were more brownish. The chin and the middle of the throat were brown. The surface of its tail were brownish-black. The undertail coverts exhibit white spots. The inner wing coverts were brownish and were spotted with white. The outer edged of the first primary was dull brown. Eyes, legs and feet had a reddish hue. The bill was black. Its size was about 18 cm. Controversial data exists as to its ability to fly. X-ray measurements of the

carpometacarpi The carpometacarpus is a bone found in the hands of birds. It results from the fusion of the carpal and metacarpal bone, and is essentially a single fused bone between the wrist and the knuckles. It is a smallish bone in most birds, generally flatt ...

lead to the assumption that it was flightless. However its native name ''nay-tay-mai-not'' which means "the one who lands in the taro plot" might imply that the ability to fly was present.David Day (1981). ''The Doomsday Book of Animals'', p. 87, Ebury Press, London,

Extinction

The Kosrae crake is only known by two specimens taken by von Kittlitz in December 1827 in the swamps of Kosrae. The two skins are now in the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. The story of its extinction is similar to the vanishing of the Kosrae starling (another extinct species from Kosrae). Even in 1828 von Kittlitz described this bird as uncommon. German ornithologist

Otto Finsch Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch (8 August 1839, Warmbrunn – 31 January 1917, Braunschweig) was a German ethnographer, natural history, naturalist and colonial explorer. He is known for a two-volume monograph on the parrots of the world which earne ...

failed to find this bird on his expedition in 1880 and also the

Whitney South Seas Expedition The Whitney South Sea Expedition (1920 - 1941) to collect bird specimens for the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), under the initial leadership of Rollo Beck, was instigated by Leonard Cutler Sanford, Dr Leonard C. Sanford and financed by ...

of the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

in 1931 remained unsuccessful on a survey after that species. They became apparently victims of rats which had overrun Kosrae after they were able to escape from missionary and whaling vessels which were careened on the beach of Kosrae.

Description

Extinction

References

Further reading