Gilbert Rail
A rail, known only from a single specimen in the form of an alcohol-preserved skin at Harvard, was originally believed to have been collected on one of the Gilbert Islands and named as the Gilbert Rail, Gallirallus conditicius (Peters & Griscom, 1928).
However, the island attributed to this holotype is low, rocky and sandy, and has no habitat suitable for a rail.
It now appears that a curatorial error led to the specimen being labeled to the wrong collection, and the specimen is actually an immature female Lord Howe Woodhen. It differs from that species only in a paler crown, throat and underparts, and browner head, but long immersion in alcohol could have changed the colour. (Taylor and van Perlo,Rails SBN 90-74345-20-4)
The island to which the specimen was originally attributed is 4,500 km from Lord Howe Island, and it appears improbable that two flightless rails could evolve separately with no morphological differences.
Read more about this topic: Lord Howe Woodhen
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