Tahiti rail plantations. Its diet appears to have consisted mainly of insects and occasionally copra (coconut meat). The extinction of the Tahiti rail was probably due to predation by humans and introduced cats and rats. It appears to have become extinct some time after 1844 on Tahiti, and perhaps as late as the 1930s on Mehetia. The Tahiti rail was found on the South Pacific island of Tahiti (part of the Society Islands archipelago) by naturalists who were part of the British explorer James Cook's second voyage around the world (1772–1775). The bird was illustrated by Georg Forster, who accompanied his father,
A Tour in Scotland, 1769 A Tour in Scotland, 1769 A Tour in Scotland, 1769 was published in 1771. It is written by Thomas Pennant and illustrated by Moses Griffiths, who travelled together. Pennant set a new standard in travel literature: Samuel Johnson (whose own travelogue it provoked) said of him, "He's the best traveller I ever read; he observes more things than anyone else does". He himself said of his work: "I beg to be considered not as a Topographer but as a curious traveller willing to collect all that a traveller may be supposed to do in his voyage; I am the first