Distribution and Migration 



DISTRIBUTION 



Unlike the Clapper Kail, which in the eastern United States is 

 mainly restricted to a rather narrow band of salt marshes along the 

 Atlantic and gulf coasts, the King Rail is found throughout the east- 

 em half of North America. In general, its breeding range extends 

 from the Gulf of Mexico to southern Canada and from the Atlantic 

 coast to about the 100th meridian in the Great Plains (fig. 3). 



Figure 3. — Approximate breeding range and principal distribution of the King 

 Rail in North America (black shaded area along Gulf and Atlantic Coasts and 

 in Lower Mississippi Valley and peninsular Florida indicates main wintering 

 range). 



The boundaries of the breeding range as given in the American 

 Ornithologists' Union Check-list (1957, p. 152) and supplemented 

 by additional records, mostly from the distribution files of the Section 

 of Migratory Non-Game Bird Studies, Migratory Bird Populations 

 Station, Laurel, Md., and from Auduhon Field Notes, are as follows : 

 The northern boundary extends from southeastern North Dakota 



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