Gallinula

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Cladus: Craniata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Archosauromorpha
Cladus: Crurotarsi
Divisio: Archosauria
Subsectio: Ornithodira
Subtaxon: Dinosauromorpha
Cladus: Dinosauria
Ordo: Saurischia
Cladus: Theropoda
Cladus: Neotheropoda
Infraclassis: Aves
Cladus: Euavialae
Cladus: Avebrevicauda
Cladus: Pygostylia
Cladus: Ornithothoraces
Cladus: Euornithes
Cladus: Ornithuromorpha
Cladus: Ornithurae
Cladus: Carinatae
Parvclassis: Neornithes
Cohors: Neognathae
Ordo: Gruiformes

Familia: Rallidae
Genus: Gallinula
Species: G. chloropus – G. comeri – G. galeata – G. silvestris – G. tenebrosa

Species extinctae: †G. nesiotis – †G. pacifica
Name

Gallinula Brisson, 1760
Typus

Fulica chloropus Linnaeus, 1758 = Gallinula chloropus

References

Brisson, M.J. 1760. Ornithologie ou méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés. A laquelle on a joint une description exacte de chaque espece, avec les citations des auteurs qui en ont traité, les noms qu'ils leur ont donnés, ceux que leur ont donnés les différentes nations, & les noms vulgaires. Ouvrage enrichi de figures en taille-douce. Tome I. - pp. j-xxiv [= 1-24], 1-526, j-lxxiij [= 1-73], Pl. I-XXXVII [= 1-37]. Paris. (Bauche). Original description p.50 BHL Reference page. Illustration pl.III fig.1 BHL Tome 6 p.2 BHL Illustration pl.I fig.1,2 BHL

Vernacular names
Deutsch: Teichrallen
English: Moorhens
français: Gallinule
svenska: Rörhöna

Moorhens—sometimes called marsh hens—are medium-sized water birds that are members of the rail family (Rallidae). Most species are placed in the genus Gallinula, Latin for "little hen".[1] They are close relatives of coots. They are often referred to as (black) gallinules. Recently, one of the species of Gallinula was found to have enough differences to form a new genus Paragallinula with the only species being the lesser moorhen (Paragallinula angulata).

Two species from the Australian region, sometimes separated in Tribonyx, are called "native hens" (also native-hen or nativehen).[2][3][4][5] The native hens differ visually by shorter, thicker and stubbier toes and bills, and longer tails that lack the white signal pattern of typical moorhens.[6][7]

Description
Common moorhens fighting

These rails are mostly brown and black with some white markings in plumage colour. Unlike many of the rails, they are usually easy to see because they feed in open water margins rather than hidden in reedbeds.

They have short rounded wings and are weak fliers, although usually capable of covering long distances. The common moorhen in particular migrates up to 2,000 km from some of its breeding areas in the colder parts of Siberia. Those that migrate do so at night. The Gough moorhen on the other hand is considered almost flightless; it can only flutter some metres. As common in rails, there has been a marked tendency to evolve flightlessness in island populations.

Moorhens can walk very well on their strong legs, and have long toes that are well adapted to soft uneven surfaces.

These birds are omnivorous, consuming plant material, small rodents, amphibians and eggs. They are aggressively territorial during the breeding season, but are otherwise often found in sizeable flocks on the shallow vegetated lakes they prefer.
Systematics and evolution
Flightless Tasmanian native hen, Tribonyx mortierii

The genus Gallinula was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) as the type species.[8][9]

The genus Gallinula contains five extant, one recently extinct, and one possibly extinct species:[10]

Samoan moorhen, Gallinula pacifica – sometimes placed in Pareudiastes, possibly extinct (1907?)
Makira moorhen, Gallinula silvestris – sometimes placed in Pareudiastes or Edithornis, extremely rare with no direct observations in recent decades, but still considered likely extant due to reports of the species persisting in very small numbers.
†Tristan moorhen, Gallinula nesiotis – formerly sometimes placed in Porphyriornis;[11] extinct (late 19th century)
Gough moorhen, Gallinula comeri – formerly sometimes placed in Porphyriornis
Common moorhen, Gallinula chloropus
Common gallinule, Gallinula (chloropus) galeata, recently split by the AOU, other committees still evaluating
Dusky moorhen, Gallinula tenebrosa

Former members of the genus:

Lesser moorhen, Paragallinula angulata
Spot-flanked gallinule, Porphyriops melanops
Black-tailed native hen, Tribonyx ventralis
Tasmanian native hen, Tribonyx mortierii

Other moorhens have been described from older remains. Apart from the 1–3 extinctions in more recent times, another 1–4 species have gone extinct as a consequence of early human settlement: Hodgen's waterhen (Gallinula hodgenorum) of New Zealand—which belongs in subgenus Tribonyx—and a species close to the Samoan moorhen from Buka, Solomon Islands, which is almost certainly distinct from the Makira moorhen, as the latter cannot fly. The undescribed Viti Levu gallinule of Fiji would either be separated in Pareudiastes if that genus is considered valid, or may be a completely new genus. Similarly, the undescribed "swamphen" of Mangaia, currently tentatively assigned to Porphyrio, may belong to Gallinula/Pareudiastes.
Evolution
Badge of HMS Moorhen

Still older fossils document the genus since the Late Oligocene onwards. The genus seems to have originated in the Southern Hemisphere, in the general region of Australia. By the Pliocene, it was probably distributed worldwide:

Gallinula sp. (Early Pliocene of Hungary and Germany)
Gallinula kansarum (Late Pliocene of Kansas, USA)
Gallinula balcanica (Late Pliocene[12] of Varshets, Bulgaria).[13]
Gallinula gigantea (Early Pleistocene of Czech Republic and Israel)

The ancient "Gallinula" disneyi (Late Oligocene—Early Miocene of Riversleigh, Australia) has been separated as genus Australlus.

Even among non-Passeriformes, this genus has a long documented existence. Consequently, some unassigned fragmentary rail fossils might also be from moorhens or native hens. For example, specimen QM F30696, a left distal tibiotarsus piece from the Oligo-Miocene boundary at Riversleigh, is similar to but than and differs in details from "G." disneyi.[6] It cannot be said if this bird—if a distinct species—was flightless. From size alone, it might have been an ancestor of G. mortierii (see also below).

In addition to paleosubspecies of Gallinula chloropus, the doubtfully distinct Late Pliocene to Pleistocene Gallinula mortierii reperta was described, referring to the population of the Tasmanian native hen that once inhabited mainland Australia and became extinct at the end of the last ice age.[14] It may be that apart from climate change it was driven to extinction by the introduction of the dingo, which as opposed to the marsupial predators hunted during the day, but this would require a survival of mainland Gallinula mortierii to as late as about 1500 BC.[15]

"G." disneyi was yet another flightless native hen, indicative of that group's rather basal position among moorhens. Its time and place of occurrence suggest it as an ancestor of G. mortierii (reperta), from which it differed mostly in its much smaller size. However, some limb bone proportions are also strikingly different, and in any case such a scenario would require a flightless bird to change but little during some 20 million years in an environment rich in predators. As the fossils of G. disneyi as well as the rich recent and subfossil material of G. mortierii shows no evidence of such a change at all, "G." disneyi more probably represents a case of parallel evolution at an earlier date,[6] as signified by its placement in Australlus.
In fiction

"Marsh Hens" are briefly mentioned in the Edgar Allan Poe story "The Gold-Bug", as part of a description of the ecology of Sullivan's Island. The main characters also prepare Marsh Hens for supper at one point early in the story.
References

Gallinula is the diminutive of gallīna ("hen"). It is anglicized gallinule in older zoological texts. "gallinule". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
"Taxonomy update for 2017 - eBird". eBird. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
Gill, Frank; Donsker (eds), David. "Taxonomy Version 2". IOC World Bird List (v8.2). IOC World Bird List. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
Pepperday, Martin. "Profile - Tasmanian Native Hen". UTAS Zoology Home. University of Tasmania. Archived from the original on 2 October 2006. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
Goldizen, Dr. "Tasmanian native hens share mates to get the best ground". The University of Queensland, Australia. The University of Queensland. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
Boles (2005)
"Parks & Wildlife Service - Native Hen, Tribonyx Mortierii". Parks & Wildlife Service. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés (in French and Latin). Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. Vol. 1, p. 50, Vol. 6, p. 2.
Peters, James Lee, ed. (1934). Check-list of Birds of the World. Volume 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 202.
Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Rails, gallinules, trumpeters, cranes". World Bird List Version 9.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
Taylor, Barry (2010). Rails: A Guide to Rails, Crakes, Gallinules and Coots of the World. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 490. ISBN 978-1-4081-3538-9.
Middle Villafranchian
Boev, Z. 1999. Gallinula balcanica sp. n. (Rallidae: Gruiformes) - a middle villafranchian moorhen from Western Bulgaria. - Acta zoologica bulgarica, 51 (1): 43-48.
Olson (1975), Baird (1984), Boles (2005)

Baird (1991), Boles (2005)