According to Tafforet's account, the Rodrigues rail fed on the eggs of the now extinct "Cylindraspis" tortoises, three species of which lived on Rodrigues. As it took advantage of their breeding season, Hume considered it an opportunistic predator, which perhaps also fed on hatchling tortoises. A former tortoise breeding area in the Plaine Corail shows that such sites were concentrated into a small area containing large numbers of eggs; the phalanx bone of a Rodrigues rail has been found among the egg remains. The rails would have fattened themselves seasonally, but at other times of the year, they probably fed on snails and other invertebrates, as well as scavenging sea bird colonies. The Rodrigues rail probably fed on worms, such as "Kontikia whartoni" and the now extinct "Geonemertes rodericana", by probing leaf-litter or rotting wood. Sexual dimorphism may have reflected differences in diet between the sexes.