Hypotaenidia Reichenbach, 1853

Hume, Julian Pender, 2019, Systematics, morphology and ecology of rails (Aves: Rallidae) of the Mascarene Islands, with one new species, Zootaxa 4626 (1), pp. 1-107 : 37

Genus Hypotaenidia Reichenbach, 1853

Buff-banded Rail Hypotaenidia philippensis ( Linnaeus, 1766)

Rallus philippensis: Linnaeus, 1766, p.263

Hypotaenidia pectoralis (Lesson) : E. Newton, 1888, p.552

Gallirallus philippensis: Olson, 1973, p.397

Hypotaenidia philippensis: Dickinson & Remsen, 2013, p. 155 ; del Hoyo & Collar, 2014, p.344

Remarks: There is a single record of Buff-banded Rail Hypotaenidia philippensis ( Linnaeus, 1766) , a male killed at Champ des Mars, near Port Louis, in 1863 and held at UMZC, but the month is not known ( Rountree et al. 1952: 180; Benson 1970: 171). E. Newton (1888: 552) listed it as accidental, and the genus has not been recorded again in the Mascarenes, or anywhere else in the Indian Ocean ( Safford & Hawkins 2013). Benson considered it to be the race australis (now synonymised under H. p. mellori (Taylor & van Perlo 1998)), but noted that the individual was heavily worn, with most of the feathers of the crown and rump missing and the wings incomplete. If a genuine vagrant, it is a unique and extremely rare one, as the nearest source populations of H. philippensis are the Moluccas and eastern Australia (Taylor & van Perlo 1998).