Olson and Rauzon • WAKE ISLAND RAIL 
665 
"further skins received, all from 1892” and it is 
no longer clear which specimens constituted the 
original series upon which Rothschild based the 
name. Ten of the original specimens went to the 
American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) 
with the sale of Rothschild's collection. Green- 
way (1973:307) identified the lectotype of 
Hypataenidia wakensis as AMNH 545265. pre¬ 
sumably on the basis of a Hurtert label 
annotation. These specimens were made up with 
the legs far up the body and the bill pointing up. 
except for one that was obviously remade as a 
traditionally positioned and proportioned study 
skin. One specimen with the original preparation 
was received at the Natural History Museum. 
London, from Rothschild (BMNH 1908.12.21.7: 
Knox and Walters 1994). 
The largest series of G. wakensis was collected 
on the Tanager Expedition in late July and early 
August 1923 (Olson 1996). Wetmore obtained 46 
individuals that were prepared as 40 skins. 3 
complete and 27 trunk skeletons, and 3 complete 
and 6 trunks preserved in alcohol and placed in 
the National Museum of Natural History, Smith¬ 
sonian Institution (USNM). One skin from this 
series (Wetmore 7756, USNM 301075) was 
exchanged to .1. H. Fleming and is now in the 
Royal Ontario Museum (ROM 37304) and a 
second (Wetmore 7834, USNM 301098) was 
exchanged to Harvard University (MCZ 
157073). A single trunk skeleton (Wetmore 
1803. USNM 499370) was exchanged to AMNH 
(10803). Unfortunately. Wetmore’s cataloging 
system does not allow a trunk specimen to be 
associated with a given skin. Of the six trunks 
preserved in alcohol, we opened one (USNM 
289336) to examine the condition of the gonads. 
Eleven additional specimens were obtained 
incidentally during 1935-1939 when the island 
was in use mainly as a stopover for commercial 
airline flights prior to military buildup. The first 
was a single skin taken in November 1935 
(Bernice P. Bishop Museum. BBM 6120) by 
Myron L. Kenler. a physician assigned to Wake 
by Pan American Airlines (Pan Am), where he 
was in residence from 9 May to 4 December 1935, 
during which time he also collected biological 
specimens for the Bishop Museum (Krupnick 
1997). Kenler’ s is the only adult specimen of 
which we are aware that is in completely fresh, 
unworn plumage (Frontispiece). 
H. J. Spencer and F. E. Garlough, while 
controlling rats in 1937, obtained a small series 
of seabirds and six specimens of the rail, 
including one juvenile, that were incorporated 
into the collections of the Biological Survey 
housed at USNM. The following year, one 
specimen, skinned out of alcohol, was collected 
by Pan Am pilot Horace Brock, who was a 
personal friend of R. Meyer dc Schauensee, 
curator at the Academy of Natural Sciences of 
Philadelphia (ANSP), w'hcre the specimen is 
housed (ANSP 131672). Five specimens at the 
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ) collected 
by Torrey Lyons consist of four downy young (2 
skins. 2 in fluid) taken on 21 July 1939. and an 
adult skin from 25 October 1939, the last 
specimen of the species ever to make it into a 
museum. Wing measurements were made with a 
stopped ruler to the nearest 1.0 mm. Other 
measurements were made with digital calipers 
and rounded to the nearest 0.1 mm. 
Archival Sources .—Official interbureau reports 
on the rat abatement programs on Wake Atoll are 
on file in the U.S. National Archives, Record 
Group 22, and are cited as Spencer (1936) and 
Hansen (1937). In August 1959, the Washington 
office ot the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
(USFWS) wrote to H. J. Spencer (Smithsonian 
Institution Archives. John W. Aldrich Papers, 
Accession 11-162), who was then in a branch in 
Gainesville. Florida, noting that his reports on rat 
control on Wake in the 1930s did not contain 
information on the birds of the island and could he 
supply same if possible. Spencer responded 
almost immcdialely in a report on the birds of 
Wake Island dated 20 August 1959, most of which 
had been written in 1937. We have not traced the 
entire report but a copy of Spencer's cover letter 
and ihe page of notes concerning the Wake Island 
Rail were included in Wetmore’s file on the rail. 
We cite this material as Spencer (1959). 
Alexander Wetmore’s journal of the Tanager 
Expedition was published in its entirety (Olson 
1996) and we have cited his observations as 
Wetmore (in Olson 1996). A folder from Wet- 
more's files iri the Division of Birds labeled 
‘Wake Island (Rail)’ contains a variety of 
materials including correspondence, clippings, 
specimen data, and three apparently unpublished 
manuscripts by W etmore concerning Wake Island 
and the Wake Island Rail (Smithsonian Institution 
Archives, Wetmore Papers, Accession 11-163). 
The most important of these is a carbon copy of a 
five-page manuscript entitled 4 Wake Island Rail 
Rallus wakensis (Rothschild)' attached to a copy 
