Lyall's wren

Lyall's wren
Specimen at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh

Extinct (1895?)  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Acanthisittidae
Genus: Traversia
Rothschild, 1894
Species:
T. lyalli
Binomial name
Traversia lyalli
Synonyms

Xenicus lyalli

Lyall's wren or the Stephens Island wren (Traversia lyalli) is an extinct species of small, flightless passerine bird belonging to the family Acanthisittidae, the New Zealand wrens. It was once found throughout New Zealand, but by the time of its discovery by scientists in 1894, it could only be found on Stephens Island in Cook Strait. Often claimed to be a species driven extinct by only a single individual animal (a lighthouse keeper's cat named Tibbles), it was actually predated upon by the numerous feral cats found throughout the island. The wren was described almost simultaneously by both Walter Rothschild and Walter Buller. It became extinct shortly thereafter.