Rallus is a genus of wetland birds of the rail family. Sometimes, the genera Lewinia and Gallirallus are included in it. Six of the species are found in the Americas, and the three species found in Eurasia, Africa and Madagascar are very closely related to each other, suggesting they are descended from a single invasion of a New World ancestor.[2]
These are slim, long-billed rails with slender legs. Their laterally flattened bodies are an adaptation to life in wet reedbeds and marshes, enabling them to slip easily through the dense semi-aquatic vegetation. Typically these birds have streaked brown upperparts, blue-grey on the face or breast, and barred flanks. Only the African rail has a plain back, and the plain-flanked rail lacks any blue-grey in its plumage and has no flank bars.[2]
The genus Rallus was erected in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.[3] The type species was subsequently designated as the water rail (Rallus aquaticus).[4] The genus name Rallus comes from the pre-binomial Latin name Rallus aquaticus for the water rail used by English ornithologist Francis Willughby in 1676,[5] and by the English naturalist Eleazar Albin in 1731.[6] The precise etymology of the word Rallus is uncertain.[7]
Rallus nanusSão Jorge rail (prehistoric of São Jorge Island in the Azores) - erroneously previously described as Rallus minutus, which is a junior homonym[10]
Rallus natator (Pleistocene of San Josecito Cavern, Mexico) – formerly Epirallus
Rallus phillipsi (Late Pliocene of Wickieup, USA)
Rallus prenticei (Late Pliocene of C North America)
Rallus recessus (St Georges Soil Late Pleistocene of Bermuda, W Atlantic)
^Jobling, J.A. (2019). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). "Rallus". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive: Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
Gál, Erika; Hír, János; Kessler, Eugén & Kókay, József (1998–99): Középsõ-miocén õsmaradványok, a Mátraszõlõs, Rákóczi-kápolna alatti útbevágásból. I. A Mátraszõlõs 1. lelõhely [Middle Miocene fossils from the sections at the Rákóczi chapel at Mátraszőlős. Locality Mátraszõlõs I.]. Folia Historico Naturalia Musei Matraensis23: 33–78. [Hungarian with English abstract] PDF fulltext
Taylor, P. Barry & van Perlo, Ber (1998): Rails : a guide to the rails, crakes, gallinules, and coots of the world. Yale University Press, New Haven. ISBN0-300-07758-0
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