New Zealand coot

New Zealand coot
Temporal range: Holocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Gruiformes
Family: Rallidae
Genus: Fulica
Species:
F. prisca
Binomial name
Fulica prisca
Hamilton, 1893
Synonyms
  • Palaeolimnas prisca
  • Nesophalaris prisca Brodkorb & Dawson, 1962
  • Fulica chathamensis prisca Olson, 1975

The New Zealand coot (Fulica prisca) is an extinct bird in the rail family, Rallidae, that was endemic to New Zealand. It was described in 1893 by New Zealand naturalist, ethnologist and museum director Augustus Hamilton, from material he had collected the previous year at Castle Rocks on the Ōreti River in Southland.[1] The Latin specific epithet prisca means "old", referring to its subfossil occurrence. Remains have subsequently been found at several sites in both North and South Islands.[2]

  1. ^ "New Zealand Coot, Fulica prisca; lectotype". Collections Online. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Retrieved 2013-07-19.
  2. ^ Millener, P.R. (1981). "The subfossil distribution of extinct New Zealand coots, Fulica chathamensis subspp. (Aves: Rallidae)" (PDF). Notornis. 28 (1): 1–9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-31.