Introduction 



The King Rail (Rallus elegans Audubon), largest of North Amer- 

 ican rails, is indeed an elegant bird, as its Latin name implies. Its 

 striking appearance (fig. 1), secretive nature, and association with a 

 variety of wetland habitats make it a favorite of bird students and 

 rail hunters. The King Rail is found in most of the eastern half of 

 North America, from the Atlantic coast to the Great Plains and from 

 the Gulf of Mexico to southern Canada. It is most abundant in the 

 fresh and brackish tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal 

 Plain, the domestic ricefields of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas, and 

 the marshes of southern Florida. It is fairly common in parts of the 

 Midwest Prairie and Great Lakes region. 



I began my studies of this interesting bird in 1950 in the Arkansas 

 ricefields, and have continued them until 1967, both in the field and 

 in the laboratory. 



Many of the field observations, particularly those of courtship 

 behavior, were made from an automobile which served as an admirable 

 mobile blind. Such a blind was used to follow courting rails along 

 roadside ditches in Arkansas and Louisiana, making it possible to 

 study the detailed nuptial courtship behavior of 20 different pairs 

 and the prenuptial behavior of four. Under these conditions it was 

 possible also to distinguish the sexes by their behavior rather than 

 by their size differences, which are sometimes difficult to ascertain in 

 the field. 



The highly vocal nature of the King Rail and its characteristic 

 calls, varying with different conditions, enhance the value of field 

 observations and made the call-count census a practical technique. 



Studies of growth and development of the young were made with 

 captive birds, which are quite tractable if obtained early in life from 

 nests or hatched from eggs in incubators. 



Studies of breeding biology were made mostly on the Arkansas 

 Grand Prairie in the vicinity of Stuttgart from 1950 through 1956. 

 Subsequent studies on life history and ecology were made at Mamou, 

 Evangeline Parish, La. ; Broadway Meadows near Woodland Beach, 

 Kent County, Del.; the Pee Dee River at Georgetown, S.C. ; the 

 Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, Jasper County, S.C; and the 

 Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, Md. 



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