===Contemporary descriptions===The English traveller Peter Mundy visited Mauritius in 1638 and described the red rail as follows:The yellowish colouration instead of the red mentioned by other accounts has been used as argument for this referring to a distinct species, "Kuina mundyi", but it has also been suggested it was due to the observed bird being a juvenile.
Venne scoperto nella collezione dell'imperatore e pubblicato nel 1868 da Georg von Frauenfeld, assieme al dipinto di un dodo eseguito dallo stesso artista presente nella stessa collezione.