Hawaiian Rail

The Hawaiian Rail (Porzana sandwichensis), Hawaiian Spotted Rail, or Hawaiian Crake was a somewhat enigmatic species of diminutive rail that lived on Big Island of Hawaiʻi, but is now extinct. It was a flightless bird that was apparently found in shrubland and secondary growth on abandoned fields and in times of danger had the habit of hiding in Polynesian Rat burrows. Specimens are known or assumed to be from an area which roughly corresponds to the middle elevations of today's Puna district around the present settlement of Mountain View, below the primary rainforest. A dark form and a lighter, spotted one are known (see below).

The first collections were of individuals of the lighter form, of which today 5 specimens seem to exist: in the Naturalis in Leiden (one: RMNH 87450), in the American Museum of Natural History and New York City (1)). Of the dark form, several additional individuals are present in collections in Cambridge (Museum of Natural History, 1), London (Natural History Museum, 1), Vienna, New York City (1) and Honolulu (Bishop Museum, 2). One 1778 painting by William Ellis (plate 70) depicts a light bird, possibly the Leiden specimen (which was apparently collected in late January/early February, 1779), and in more recent times, subfossil bones have also been recovered.

The native name for the bird was apparently moho, said to refer to a small "bird that crows in the grass". The name iao or ʻiao was claimed to refer to a moho-like but smaller bird; it is not clear whether this bird was the distinctive lighter form or the extinct unnamed small rail (see below). The bird is referenced in the old Hawaiian proverb ʻAʻohe mea nāna e hoʻopuhili, he moho no ka lā makani which means roughly "nothing can blow him off course, he is like a moho in the wind"; it was used to indicate admiration for an undaunted or determined person (as the bird was unable to fly, it was not affected by the wind). This is not to be confused with the taxonomical name Moho, which are the ʻōʻō; also from Hawaiʻi, also extinct, but completely unrelated birds.