Tag Archives: Porzana monasa (Kittlitz)

Zapornia monasa (Kittlitz)

Kosrae Swamphen (Zapornia monasa 

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Freiherr von Kittlitz, the discoverer of the species, writes in the year 1858.:  

Here on Ualan a very similar bird is found, but it comes from the family of the rails. It lives solitary on the ground on these always soggy, deeply shadowed places of the forests. One can hear here from time to time its pervasive mating call; its body, which roughly matches that of a quail in size, is considerably less as in the remainder rails compressed; furthermore it carries the tail, which is missing the rectrices, not upright like those. Its appearance is much more those of a young, still completely tailless domestic chicken. The whole plumage is dull black, tinged whitish at the chin, the bill black, the naked eyelids are like the feet fine red like lead tetroxide, the eyes somewhat darker red like sealing wax. The tongue is of the length of the bill, at the tip flat and like horn. The bird is not common on Ualan and moreover because of its little accessible whereabouts also difficult to hunt. Maybe it is Rallus tabuensis, of which a short description is found in Latham’s Index ornithologicus. In Petersburg I did left behind a completely engraved copper plate with a depiction of this bird; I don’t know, if from the same since 1853 has still made use of. I myself had not liked to make the decision to declare the species for a new one; would it be so, however, I’d like to give it the name Rallus Monasa. 
The natives of Ualan name them as Setamanot.
“ [2]

The bird can be found (very tiny, in the left front) on a depiction from F. W. H. von Kittlitz’s ‘Vierundzwanzig Vegetations-Ansichten von Küstenländern und Inseln des Stillen Oceans’ from the year 1844.  

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Depiction from: ‘F. W. H. von Kittlitz: Vierundzwanzig Vegetations-Ansichten von Küstenländern und Inseln des Stillen Oceans, aufgenommen in den Jahren 1827, 28 und 29 auf der Entdeckungsreise der Kaiserlich-Russischen Corvette Senjawin unter Capitain Lütke. Siegen: Friedrich 1844’ 

(under creative commons license (3.0)) 
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 

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References:  

[1] F. W. H. von Kittlitz: Vierundzwanzig Vegetations-Ansichten von Küstenländern und Inseln des Stillen Oceans, aufgenommen in den Jahren 1827, 28 und 29 auf der Entdeckungsreise der Kaiserlich-Russischen Corvette Senjawin unter Capitain Lütke. Siegen: Friedrich 1844 
[2] F. H. v. Kittlitz. Denkwürdigkeiten einer Reise nach dem russischen Amerika, nach Mikronesien und durch Kamtschatka, Gotha 1858 
[3] Dieter Luther: Die ausgestorbenen Vögel der Welt. Westarp Wissenschaften 1986 
[4] H. Douglas Pratt, Phillip L. Bruner, Delwyn G. Berrett: A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific. Princeton University Press 1987 
[5] Errol Fuller: Extinct Birds. Penguin Books (England) 1987 
[6] Barry Taylor, Ber van Perlo: Rails: A Guide to the Rails, Crakes, Gallinules and Coots of the World. Yale University Press 1998 
[7] Beth Slikas; Storrs L. Olson; Robert C. Fleischer: Rapid, independent evolution of flightlessness in four species of Pacific Island rails (Rallidae): an analysis based on mitochondrial sequence data. Journal of Avian Biology 33: 5-14. 2002

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edited: 17.10.2020