The red rail (Aphanapteryx bonasia), now extinct, was a flightless rail, found only on Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. A little larger than a chicken, it had reddish, hairlike plumage, dark legs, and a long, curved beak. The wings were small; rail species often became flightless when adapting to isolated islands, free of mammalian predators. It is believed to have fed on invertebrates, and snail shells have been found with damage matching an attack by its beak. Until subfossil remains were described in 1869, scientists only knew the red rail from 17th-century descriptions and illustrations, incorrectly thought to represent several species. It has been suggested that all late 17th-century accounts of the dodo actually referred to the red rail, after the former had become extinct. The last mention of a red rail sighting is from 1693. The species is thought to have been hunted to extinction around 1700 by introduced species and also by humans, who took advantage of red rails' attraction to red coloured cloth to lure them and beat them with sticks.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_rail

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1805:

Napoleonic Wars: A Franco-Spanish fleet recaptured Diamond Rock, an uninhabited island at the entrance to the bay leading to Fort- de-France, from the British. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Diamond_Rock

1866:

Fenian raids: The Battle of Ridgeway, the first to be fought only by Canadian troops and led exclusively by Canadian officers, took place in Ontario. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ridgeway

1967:

German university student Benno Ohnesorg was killed during a protest in West Berlin against the visit of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, sparking the formation of the militant group 2 June Movement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_June_Movement

1999:

Bhutan ended its status as the only country in the world to prohibit television when the state-run Bhutan Broadcasting Service came on the air. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan_Broadcasting_Service

2010:

A lone gunman went on a shooting spree in Cumbria, England, killing 12 people and injuring 11 others before committing suicide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbria_shootings

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

couch: 1. To lie down; to recline (upon a couch or other place of repose). 2. (archaic) To lie down for concealment; to conceal, to hide; to be concealed; to be included or involved darkly or secretly. 3. To bend the body, as in reverence, pain, labor, etc.; to stoop; to crouch. 4. (transitive) To lay something upon a bed or other resting place. 5. (transitive) To arrange or dispose as if in a bed. 6. (transitive) To lay or deposit in a bed or layer; to bed. 7. (transitive) To lower (a spear or lance) to the position of attack. 8. (ophthalmology, transitive) In the treatment of a cataract in the eye, to displace the opaque lens with a sharp object such as a needle. The technique is regarded as largely obsolete. 9. (paper-making, transitive) To transfer (for example, sheets of partly dried pulp) from the wire mould to a felt blanket for further drying. 10. (sewing, transitive) To attach a thread onto fabric with small stitches in order to add texture. 11. To phrase in a particular style; to use specific wording for. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/couch

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I remind young people everywhere I go, one of the worst things the older generation did was to tell them for twenty-five years "Be successful, be successful, be successful" as opposed to "Be great, be great, be great". There's a qualititative difference.   --Cornel West https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cornel_West