THE OOLOGI8T 



43 



A Nest Full of King Rails Eggs, Situated Beside a Railroad Track 



— Photo by A. D. Du Bois 



A KING RAIL'S NEST IN SAN- 

 GAMON COUNTY, ILLINOIS 



There is doubtless nothing unusual 

 about the occurrence of tlie King Rail 

 in central Illinois. That is why I was 

 struck by the novelty of a field-note 

 which I found recently in running 

 through an old bird journal. It is my 

 only record of the King Rail in my 

 native county. Sangamon County is a 

 highly developed farming area and 

 embraces no marshes of an extent 



which one might consider adequate for 

 the nesting of Rails. 



The note is dated May 14, 1908. I 

 had been on a field trip west of Spring- 

 field and was "counting the ties" 

 toward liome on the B. & O. R. R. 

 track, when I found a marshy spot in 

 the right-of-way, where several Red- 

 winged Blackbirds were nesting in the 

 cat-tails. Upon exploring this little 

 marsh, which was probably fifty by 

 one hundred feet in extent, I flushed a 



