Stephens Island wren
| Lyall's wren | |
|---|---|
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| 1895 illustration by John Keulemans | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Suborder: | Acanthisitti |
| Family: | Acanthisittidae |
| Genus: | Traversia |
| Species: | T. lyalli |
| Binomial name | |
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Traversia lyalli (Rothschild, 1894) |
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Lyall's wren or Stephens Island wren (Traversia lyalli) was a small flightless passerine belonging to the family Acanthisittidae, the New Zealand wrens. It was once found throughout New Zealand, but when it came to the attention of scientists in 1894 its last refuge was Stephens Island in Cook Strait. The wren was described almost simultaneously by Walter Rothschild and Walter Buller, and became extinct shortly after. It has been claimed that Lyall's wren was the only species eradicated by a single living creature, a lighthouse keeper's cat named Tibbles, but it is more likely that the large number of feral cats that had come to overrun the island by the time commercial collectors began looking for specimens were what ultimately drove the species extinct.
The bird's scientific name commemorates the assistant lighthouse keeper, David Lyall, who first brought the bird to the attention of science. It was described as a distinct genus, Traversia, in honour of naturalist and curio dealer Henry H. Travers who procured many specimens from Lyall. At one point it was considered one of the Xenicus wrens – which are not wrens but a similar-looking New Zealand lineage of primitive passerines – but DNA analysis has confirmed that Traversia is the oldest and most distinct lineage in the Acanthisittidae, originating in the Oligocene.
Lyall's wren had olive brown plumage with a yellow stripe through the eye. Its underside was grey in females and brownish-yellow in males, and body feathers were edged with brown.
Most distinctively, Lyall's wren was flightless, with a reduced keel on its breastbone and short rounded wings. It is the best known of the five or so flightless passerines (songbirds) known to science, all of which were inhabitants of islands and are now extinct. The others were three New Zealand wrens (long-billed wren and stout-legged wren) and the long-legged bunting from Tenerife, all of which were only recently discovered as fossils and became extinct in prehistoric times.
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Wikipedia