The Rallidae present the very noteworthy woodhens, Ocydromus, and the takahe, Notornis, which is almost extinct.
On the other hand L'Herminier in 1827 saw features in the Tinamou's sternum that in his judgment linked the bird to the Rallidae.
First he failed to see the great structural difference between the penguins (which Illiger had placed as a group, Impennes, of equal rank to his other families) and the auks, divers and grebes, Pygopodes - combining all of them to form a "Typus " (to use his term) Urinatores; and secondly he admitted among the Natatores, though as a distinct " Typus " Podoidae, the genera Podoa and Fulica, which are now known to belong to the Rallidae - the latter indeed (see Cool') being but very slightly removed from the moorhen (q.v.).