The history and morphology of Lord Howe Gallinule or Swamphen Porphyrio albus (Rallidae)

The extinct Lord Howe Gallinule or Swamphen Porphyrio albus (White, 1790) is known from a number of written accounts, from at least ten contemporary paintings and from two skins, but the provenance of the specimens is confused and the taxonomic literature riddled with error. We present a review of the evidence and its reliability, demonstrate that the two extant specimens were collected on Lord Howe Island, provide details about when they were taken and by whom, and how they subsequently arrived in England. We further present evidence to demonstrate that Lord Howe Gallinule possessed several unique morphological characters.

Citation

Hein van Grouw & Julian P. Hume; The history and morphology of Lord Howe Gallinule or Swamphen Porphyrio albus (Rallidae). Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club ; 136 (3): 172-198

Journal

Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10141/622733

Type

Journal Article

Item Description

Digitized on BHL by the Natural History Museum with the permission of the rights' holder under CC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)
NHM Repository

ISSN

0007-1595

EISSN

2513-9894