The extinct rail from Laysan Island was the Laysan rail, also called the Laysan crake. Its scientific name was Zapornia palmeri, and it was a flightless bird found only on the remote Northwestern Hawaiian island of Laysan.
The rail originally thrived in Laysan’s dense vegetation. Domestic rabbits introduced to the island multiplied rapidly and stripped away the plants that provided the rail with food, cover, and nesting habitat. By 1923, only two rails were found on Laysan, and the island population disappeared soon afterward.
A small number of birds had been moved to other islands, including Midway and the Pearl and Hermes Reef. Storms eliminated the Pearl and Hermes population, while rats introduced to Midway during World War II destroyed the remaining birds. The last Laysan rail was seen on Eastern Island in Midway in June 1944.
Thus, the stored answer is correct, but the cause-and-date combination needs care: rabbits drove the original Laysan population to extinction in the 1920s, while introduced rats were responsible for the final surviving population’s disappearance in 1944. The Laysan rail is easily confused with the unrelated Hawaiian rail.