Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates/Réunion swamphen/archive1
The Réunion swamphen is a hypothetical extinct species of rail that was endemic to the Mascarene island of Réunion. Only known from 17th- and 18th-century accounts by visitors to the island, it was scientifically named in 1848, based on a 1674 account. It is currently believed that it derived from the swamphen genus Porphyrio. It has been considered enigmatic due to the lack of any physical evidence of its existence. This bird was described as entirely blue in plumage with a red beak and legs and the size of a Réunion ibis or a chicken, which could mean 65–70 cm (26–28 in) in length. It may have been similar to the takahe. While easily hunted, it was a fast runner and able to fly, though it did so reluctantly. It may have fed on plant matter and invertebrates, as do other swamphens, and was said to nest among grasses and aquatic ferns. The last unequivocal account of it is from 1730, but it may have survived until 1763. Overhunting and the introduction of cats probably drove it to extinction. (Full article...)
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Hi FunkMonk and anyone else interested: a draft blurb for this article is above. Thoughts, comments and edits are welcome. Gog the Mild (talk) 12:12, 9 December 2020 (UTC)