page_title: Lyall's wren
section_title: Extinction
hierarchical_section_title: Lyall's wren / Extinction
caption_attribution_description: English: Traversia lyalli (=Xenicus lyalli)
context_page_description: Lyall's wren or the Stephens Island wren was a small flightless passerine belonging to the family Acanthisittidae, the New Zealand wrens. It was once found throughout New Zealand, but when it came to the attention of scientists in 1894, its last refuge was Stephens Island in Cook Strait. Often claimed to be a species discovered and driven extinct by a single creature, the wren in fact fell victim to the island's numerous feral cats. The wren was described almost simultaneously by both Walter Rothschild and Walter Buller. It became extinct shortly after.
context_section_description: Much of what is commonly assumed to be established knowledge about this species' extinction is either wrong or has been misinterpreted, starting with the account by Rothschild (1905) who claimed that a single cat had killed all of the birds. The research of Galbreath and Brown (2004) and Medway (2004) has uncovered much of the actual history of the bird during the short time that it was known to researchers.
  1879
  Early June?: A track to the site of the proposed lighthouse site is cleared, starting the period of human activity on the island.
  1881
  22 February: Marine Engineer John R. Blackett surveys the site for the proposed lighthouse.
  1891
  April: Preparations for the construction of the lighthouse are begun by starting to build a tramway and a landing site for boats.
  1892
  April: Clearance of land for the lighthouse and the associated farm begins (three lighthouse keepers and their families, 17 people in total, would eventually be living on the island). The first report of the species was a note on the island's birdlife made by the construction worker F. W. Ingram, which mentions "two kinds of wren" (the other one was probably the rifleman).
  1894
  29 January: The lighthouse commences working.
  17–20 February?: This is a likely date for introduction of cats to Stephens Island. What can be said with any certainty is that at some time in early 1894, a pregnant cat brought to the island escaped.
  June?: A cat starts to bring carcasses of a species of small bird to the lighthouse keepers' housings. Lyall, who was interested in natural history, has one taken to Walter Buller by A. W. Bethune, second engineer on the government steamboat NZGSS Hinemoa.
  Before 25 July?: The specimen reaches Buller, who at once recognises it as distinct species and prepares a scientific description, to be published in the journal Ibis. Bethune lends Buller the specimen so it can be sent to London for the famed artist John Gerrard Keulemans to make a lithograph plate to accompany the description.
  Winter – early spring (Southern Hemisphere): Lyall finds several more specimens. He tells Buller about two more (but does not send them to him), and sells nine to Travers.
  9 October: Travers, who recognizes the commercial value of the birds, sidelines Buller and offers the birds to Walter Rothschild, who was wealthier and thus more likely to pay a high price, further piqueing Rothschild's interest by writing, "in a short time there will be [no "wrens"] left". Rothschild acquires his nine specimens.
  11/12 October: Edward Lukins makes a list of birds on Stephens Island; he apparently confuses the species with the South Island rockwren.
  19 December: Rothschild has quickly prepared a description of the bird, as Traversia lyalli, which is read by Ernst Hartert at the British Ornithologists' Club meeting. Philip Sclater, the Club's president and editor of the Ibis who knows of Buller's article in preparation, brings up the matter to Hartert, who says he cannot withdraw Rothschild's description without consent.
  29 December: Rothschild's description appears in the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club.
  1895
  24 January: Travers offers Rothschild a specimen preserved in alcohol (with viscera intact) for £5 (about £415 in 2002's money: U.K. House of Commons Library, 2003). Rothschild apparently agrees, but never receives the bird.
  4–9 February: Travers and three assistants searched the island for the bird, but found none.
  Before 11 February?: Lyall writes to Buller: "...the cats have become wild and are making sad havoc among all the birds."
  7 March: Travers supplies Rothschild with some details of the bird's habits. To his knowledge, the species had only been seen alive twice until then. He has only been able to procure one additional specimen, brought in by the cat as the bird was dying, which also had been preserved in alcohol.
  16 March: The Christchurch newspaper The Press writes in an editorial:
  "there is very good reason to believe that the bird is no longer to be found on the island, and, as it is not known to exist anywhere else, it has apparently become 
caption: Lyall's wrens by John Gerrard Keulemans
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