90 
Nesting of the King Rail. 
By P. B. Peabody. 
Editor, THE OOLOGIST: 
There is truth in your comment, in 
July, current issue of the OOLOGIST; 
that “it is the misfortune of Ameri- 
can Ornithology, relative to many 
species; our most common, everyday 
birds are over-looked in the strenuous 
hunt for rarities.” 
Yet I am compelled to say, aS one 
“strenuous hunt” 
result of my own 
after data covering our “most com- 
mon, everyday birds,’ that there is 
really more literature concerning it- 
self with the habits of common birds, 
than one is apt to imagine. The ac- 
companying pages aiford a _  by-no- 
means unusual example of the large 
amount of fugitive literature which 
abounds in the choicest and most valu- 
able material for the bird student. The 
excerpts from the manuscript of my 
work are given verbatim; and I ap- 
pend material of my own: : 
(From Manuscript of Nesting 
Ways of North American Birds): 
‘The nests of the King Rail 
coarsely built of grass or rushes; and 
are placed amid rushes or grass. P. 
M. Silloway has made ample study of 
the nestings. Let us consult him: 
(King) Rails locate their nests 
where water is receding; and they 
perhaps intend that the ground shall 
be uncovered of water when the young 
step from the nest. I never found 
late nests on the dry or uncovered 
ground; but I have examined nests 
with incubated eggs in the outer flags 
where the ground was uncovered; and 
even baked hard. 
“The ordinary nest is made of bits 
of rushes lined with softer portions 
of rush. King Rails canopy their 
nests; and the presence of the shelter 
made by the drooping (sic) and draw- 
ing together of the tops of the stems 
are 
é 
THE OOLOGIST 
is a pretty sure index of a nest with 
its full complement.* The eggs num- 
ber (for Illinois), from eight to four- 
teen; sets of ten, eleven and twelve 
being most common.’ (Some Com- 
mon Birds, 307). Two sets are laid, 
in the South. In South Carolina First 
sets are laid between May 10 and June 
15; while the later broods are nascent 
between June 20 and July 15. One 
brood, only, is raised, more northerly. 
In Stafford County, Kansas, the Au- 
thor found nests only just ready for 
occupancy the First of June. Iowa 
nests are “full” as early as May 20. 
In Minnesota the layings are complet- 
ed between June 10 and the First of 
July. In the North, (at least), a King 
Rail nest may be found at times, at 
seme little distance from water. Most 
Rails will play this trick, occasionally, 
(especially the Virginia). : 
“Parasitism prevails with the King 
Rail; as with many water birds. B. H. 
Swales reported, from a little swamp, 
near Detroit, Michigan, a nest contain- 
ing, June, nine eggs of the host; sev- 
en of the Virginia Rail; and one of the 
Sora. And Mr. Silloway says: “I 
found a nest containing eight eggs of 
the (Florida) Gallinule and five eggs 
of the (King) Rail, the Rail being the 
usurper.” (op, & los. cit., supra). The 
writer has long been interested in the 
King Rail; through the very casuai- 
ness of his acquaintance with it. 
Glimpses of this “folio edition” of the 
familiar Virginia Rail, seen at famous 
Heron Lake, Minnesota, and in the 
outskirts of the City of St. Paul, and 
again in the smaller marshes of South- 
ern Minnesota, have kindled in my 
soul desire to find the nest of this 
greatest of North American Rails. 
In early June, 1908, I was being 
clumsily trundled along through the 
sand dunes of Stafford County, Kan- 
sas, en route for the big salt marshes; 
