NATURAL HISaX>RY OF THE KING RAIL 



7 



Oberholser (1937, p. 314-315), in discussing the relationship of these 

 two species, stated that — 



it remains yet to determine the status of the king rail, Rallus elegans, of the 

 Eastern United States, and its single subspecies, Rallus elegans ramsderd, of 

 Cuba. This is an unusually difficult matter to decide, and one concerning which 

 there may well be difference of opinion. The chief external characters separating 

 the king rails from the clapper rails consist in the much more reddish bend of 

 the wing, and in the rich rufescent-olive tinge of the upper parts of the former 

 birds, this involving both the centers and margins of the feathers. There is little 

 or no trenchant difference in behavior, voice, nest building, or other habits 

 between these two species. Neither one of the external characters of plumage 

 above mentioned, nor any difference in size or proportions, is entirely trenchant 

 when all the races of Rallus longirostris are included. 



The occurrence of King and Clapper Rails in the same breeding 

 grounds has been observed by several ornithologists. Robert E. Stewart 

 (personal communication) observed a King and a Clapper Rail 

 together with brood at Chincoteague Island on the coast of Virginia in 

 June 1951. He has also on numerous occasions observed King and 

 Clapper Rails together in the tidal marsh along Ape Hole Creek, a 

 tributary of Pocomoke Sound, Somerset County, Md. H. M. Stevenson 

 reported seeing a Clapper Rail walking directly in front of a King 

 Rail at Alabama Point, Ala., June 6, 1965 (Stewart, J. R., 1965, 

 p. 553). In April 1956, I collected a King Rail and a Clapper Rail 

 from the same pond at Grand Chenier, Cameron Parish, La. In this 

 area, the narrow chenier (stranded rim of the sea or old shoreline) 

 serves somewhat as a barrier between the fresh and salt marsh, and 

 these two species merely have to walk a hundred yards or so to be 

 together. It is difficult to separate the two species in the field in the 

 gulf coast marshes, although the breast of the resident Clapper race, 

 R, I. saturatus^ is duller brown in contrast to the more rufescent breast 

 color of the King Rail. 



On the South Atlantic coast, Ivan R. Tomkins (1958, p. 11) en- 

 countered a similar situation near Savannah, Ga. He wrote: 



This brackish area, a place of transition from fresh to salt, has some peculiar 

 situations in respect to bird habitats. In the middle of Elba Island I have seen 

 both King and Clapper Rails on territory so close together that both birds were 

 in view at the same time. 



In the New York City region, John Bull (1964, p. 169) reported 

 11 specimens and 19 sight records of King Rails in coastal salt marshes 

 and a January record of two King Rails feeding with a Clapper Ra-il 

 on a mud flat at Lawrence. 



On May 18, 1960, John S. Webb and I observed a King Rail and a 

 Clapper Rail together in a brackish tidal marsh along the Delaware 

 Bay near Fleming's Landing, Kent County, Del. The mated pair (fig. 

 2) were observed on their nesting territory on numerous occasions 

 thereafter and were collected on June 11. The nest was also located 

 on that date, and the five eggs were removed and placed in an incuba- 

 tor. Despite the fact that optimal incubation conditions were main- 



