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,
RMS Tahiti "Tahiti"′s passengers and crew if needed. At 9:30 a.m. on 17 August, "Tahiti"′s passengers and some of her crew abandoned ship, with all lifeboats away in 13 minutes; some of her crew remained behind in order to continue efforts to slow the flooding. The American steamer was just arriving on the scene, having signaled that she could take "Tahiti"′s passengers and crew aboard, and she picked them up soon after they abandoned ship. Members of "Tahiti"′s crew, assisted by a boat from "Penybryn", then returned to "Tahiti" in "Tahiti"′s boats and began efforts to save the first class mails and