Tahiti rail Tahiti rail The Tahiti rail, Tahitian red-billed rail, or Pacific red-billed rail ("Gallirallus pacificus") is an extinct species of rail that lived on Tahiti. It was first recorded during James Cook's second voyage around the world (1772–1775), on which it was illustrated by Georg Forster and described by Johann Reinhold Forster. No specimens have been preserved. As well as the documentation by the Forsters, there have been claims that the bird also existed on the nearby island of Mehetia. The Tahiti rail appears to have been closely related to, and perhaps derived from, the buff-banded rail, and has also been
Tahiti Trot Tahiti Trot Tahiti Trot, Op. 16, is Dmitri Shostakovich's 1927 orchestration of an arrangement of "Tea for Two" from the musical "No, No, Nanette" by Vincent Youmans. It had previously been arranged by the composer Boris Fomin (1900-1948) for inclusion in his operetta "The Career of Pierpont Blake" (Карьера Пирпойнта Блэка) in 1926, with Russian lyrics by Konstantin Podrevsky (1888-1930), who had given the new lyrics the title "Tahiti Trot." Shostakovich wrote it in response to a challenge from conductor Nikolai Malko: after the two listened to the song "Tahiti Trot" on record at Malko's house, Malko bet 100 roubles