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The Zapata rail (''Cyanolimnas cerverai'') is a medium-sized, dark-coloured rail, the only member of the monotypic genus ''Cyanolimnas''. It has brown upperparts, greyish-blue underparts, a red-based yellow bill, white undertail coverts, and red eyes and legs. Its short wings render it almost flightless. It is endemic to the wetlands of the Zapata Peninsula in southern Cuba, where its only known nest was found in sawgrass tussocks. Little is known of its diet or reproductive behaviour, and its described calls may belong to a different species. The Zapata rail was discovered by Spanish zoologist Fermín Zanón Cervera in March 1927 in the Zapata Swamp near Santo Tomás, in the southern Matanzas Province of Cuba. The swamp holds one other bird found nowhere else, the Zapata wren, and also gives its name to the Zapata sparrow. Due to ongoing habitat loss in its limited range, its small population size, and predation by introduced mammals and catfish, the Zapata rail is evaluated as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of threatened species. Tourism and climate change may pose threats in the future. == Discovery and taxonomy == The Zapata rail was formally described by American herpetologist Thomas Barbour and his compatriot, ornithologist James Lee Peters, in 1927. They considered it distinctive enough to merit its own genus, ''Cyanolimnas''. The genus name derives from Ancient Greek ''kuanos'' "dark blue" and Modern Latin ''limnas'' "rail or crake";〔Jobling (1992) 66.〕 the specific name ''cerverai'' honours the rail's discoverer, Fermín Zanón Cervera, a Spanish soldier who had stayed on after the Spanish-American War and became a professional naturalist.〔 Barbour had been accompanied by the Spaniard on his previous visits to Cuba, and on hearing of the strange birds to be found in the Zapata area, he sent Cervera on a series of trips into the region. Cervera eventually found the rail near the very small settlement which is commemorated in the Spanish name for the rail, "Gallinuela de Santo Tomás".〔 Cervera also discovered the Zapata wren and the Zapata sparrow, and his name is commemorated by the new ecological centre in the Ciénaga de Zapata National Park.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 work= What's New ) Retrieved 8 March 2010.〕 The rail family contains more than 150 species divided into at least 50 genera, the exact number depending on the authority. The Zapata rail is the only member of the genus ''Cyanolimnas'', and is considered to be intermediate between two other New World genera, ''Neocrex'' and ''Pardirallus''. All six species in the three genera are long-billed, five have drab plumage, and all but one have a red spot at the bill base. They are believed to be descended from ''Amaurornis''-like ancestral stock.〔Taylor & van Perlo (1998) 31.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Zapata rail」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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