THE KING RAIL. 



{Rallus elegans.) 



The King Rail is the largest of the 

 American true rails and is favored with 

 a number of popular names. It is known 

 as the Red-breasted Rail, the Marsh Hen, 

 the Sedge Hen and the Mudhen. It 

 frequents the fresh-water marshes of the 

 eastern United States and is found as 

 far north as Maine and Wisconsin and 

 as far west as Kansas. 



This fine bird very closely resembles 

 the clapper rail which inhabits the salt- 

 water marshes of eastern North America. 

 The two species, however, may be easily 

 distinguished by the difference in size 

 and color. The clapper rail is much 

 smaller and the upper parts are more 

 ashy or grayish in color and the lower 

 parts are duller and more yellowish. 



Fifteen of the one hundred and eighty 

 known species of the family Rallidse, 

 which includes the rails, gallinules and 

 coots, inhabit North America. 



The rails are not fitted for easy flight 

 and find safety from an enemy by run- 

 ning and hiding, only taking to flight 

 when all other means of escape have been 

 exhausted. They not only have "a body 

 proportioned and balanced for running, 

 but also capable of compression to the 

 narrowness of a wedge, in order tO' pass 

 readily through the thick growths of the 

 marshes, and also to aid them, perhaps, 

 in their peculiar habit of walking on the 

 bottom under the water in search of 

 food." Their feet, because of their large 

 size and the length of the toes, are well 

 adapted to the soft mire and floating 

 vegetation in which they live. With long 

 legs and well developed muscles the rails 

 are able to "run like very witches in 

 their reedy mazes, and were it not for 

 their sharp, cackling voices, their pres- 

 ence would scarcely be detected." 



Unless approached too rudely, the 



female when setting on her nest will 

 allow a very close inspection. She wiii 

 seem to be as interested in the observer 

 as he is in her. There will seem to be 

 an expression of wonder in her face. 

 If she is approached more closely than 

 she likes she slips from her nest and 

 gracefully runs through the reeds and 

 grass and soon disappears. 



The nest is usually constructed with 

 flag stems and grasses. When the nests 

 are built on dry ground they are usually 

 placed in a depression in a tuft of grass 

 and somewhat resemble the nest of the 

 meadow lark. The nests are usually 

 placed over water in tufts of marsh-grass 

 or flags. Frequently the bottom of the 

 nest is in the water and the top a few 

 inches above it. 



Mr. Silloway says : ''The King Rail 

 is said to be irritable and quarrelsome 

 in its disposition, and it is especially 

 overbearing toward its neighbors. The 

 species should be named the 'queen rail,' 

 for the female is without doubt the head 

 of the family. Is it not she who some- 

 times takes possession of the homes of 

 her meek neighbors, the gallinules? Is 

 it not she who defends her home so spirit- 

 edly when it is threatened? Hence it 

 seems to me that the King Rail is more 

 king by marriage than in his own right. 

 She" lords it over the gentle-spirited mud- 

 hens with whom she dwells, and fre- 

 quently saves herself the labor of making 

 a nest and the time to lay so many eggs, 

 by appropriating both nest and eggs of 

 a comfortably settled gallinule. I have 

 frequently found nests containing incu- 

 bated eggs of the Florida gallinule and 

 fresh eggs of the rail — indubitable evi- 

 dence to me that the rail was the usurper 

 of the home." 



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