RAILS 85 



nois and Indiana northward. It is now very much reduced 

 in numbers and nests commonly only in Florida and in Canada. 

 A few pairs are resident and breed in the pine flats of 

 Baldwin County. D. R. Peteet reports a small bunch living 

 within two miles of Foley, and a few are known to occur about 

 the shores of Perdido Bay, having been frequently heard call- 

 ing in January, 1912, by the residents of Orange Beach. A 

 pair was reported in tKe same vicinity, also, in August, 1911, 

 and during the same summer an adult and a young bird were 

 captured near the mouth of Perdido Bay, on the Alabama 

 side. 



General habits. — These cranes live on prairies and in open 

 pine flats, usually in unsettled districts. While exceedingly 

 wary and difficult to approach on foot, they will sometimes 

 permit a wagon or automobile to pass near them. Their nests 

 are in small, grassy ponds or marshes on the prairie or in 

 pine woods, made of mud, grass, weeds, etc., and elevated a 

 few inches above the water. The birds are noisy, their loud, 

 resonant notes being uttered either from the ground or while 

 flying. They frequently gather into small companies or, 

 where abundant, into flocks of considerable size. 



Food habits. — Sandhill cranes are said to be destructive to 

 sprouting grain and to corn after it is ripe. They feed to a 

 considerable extent on insects, destroying thousands of grass- 

 hoppers and the grubs (beetle larvae) found under green sod. 

 Writing of a tame individual of this species in Florida, Mrs. 

 L. H. Toussaint states that in one morning the bird captured 

 and consumed 148 grasshoppers, 2 moths, 1 roach, 1 lizard, 

 2 grubs, and 11 spiders.* 



RAILS, GALLINULES, COOTS, ETC.: Family Rallidae. 



KING RAIL; MARSH-HEN: Rallus elegans elegans 



Audubon. 



State records. — The king rail is a locally common summer 

 resident and a rare winter resident. Avery records a speci- 

 men captured March 24, 1888, at Greensboro, from which was 

 taken a fully formed egg.^ He considers the bird an uncom- 



•Bird-Lore, vol. 16, p. 359, 1914. 



tAvery, W. C Orn. and Ool., vol. 13, p. 80, 1888. 



