NAjTURAL HISTORY OF ITHE KING RAIL 



19 



road bordered on each side by a line of live oaks. In some places there 

 are a few houses. In some sections, cheniers separate fresh and brackish 

 marshes. 



Table 3. — Abundance of King Rails in certain areas, as indicated by censusing 



Location Number of King Rails Date Cover type 



Black and Pedee Rivers, 25 in 100 acres 12 Apr. 10-12, 1961 Giant cutgrass, cattail, 



Georgetown County, S.C. big cordgrass, arrow- 



arum. 



Savarmah River, Jasper 14 in 13 acres 1 ' Apr. 20, 1961. Softstem bulrush. 



County, S.C. 



10 miles south Fellsmere, 30 in 100 acres 3 May 8, 1964 Maidencane. 



Indian River County, Fla. 



Savannah National Wildlife 46 along 7-mile route *. Apr . 12, 1960 - Giant cutgrass, cattail. 



Refuge, Jasper County, sawgrass. 



S.C. 



Dulac, Terrebonne Parish, 19 along 1-mile route Jan. 3, 1963.. Clump grass, or needle 



La, cordgrass. 



4 miles north Creole, 24 along 1-mile route Jan. 5, 1963 Fall panicum. 



Cameron Parish, La. 



3 miles north Pecan Island, 20 along 1-mile route Jan. 4, 1963. Fall panicum. 



Vermilion Parish, La. 



Stuttgart, Arkansas County, 22 along 6-mile route Apr. 1955 Rice stubble, broom- 



Ark, sedge, cattail, softrush. 



1 Males only. 



2 Two-stage sampling. 

 » Strip census. 



* Roadside count. 



In this area salt marshes near the coast are dominated by a salt- 

 grass-saltmeadow cordgrass-saltmarsh cordgrass association. Land- 

 ward from this association, brackish marshes extend north to the 

 Creole and Grand Chenier ridges. Principal plants of the brackish 

 marsh are saltmeadow cordgrass, Olney's three-square, and saltmarsh 

 bulrush (Scirpus rohustus). In the transition areas between brackish 

 and fresh water, such plants as giant cutgrass, bull tongue, pickerel- 

 weed {Pontederia cordata) , and wild millet {Echinochloa crusgalli) 

 grow. The fresh-water marshes lie mainly north of the Grand Chenier 

 and Creole ridges. In the higher parts of those marshes the following 

 plants are found : bull grass {Paspalum hoscianum) , lake grass {Pas- 

 palum distichum), dotted smartweed (Polygonum punctatum), 

 squarestem spikerush {Eleocharis quadrangulata) ^ and delta duck 

 potato. Sawgrass is the climax type in the lower parts of the fresh- 

 water marsh. 



In the vicinity of the cheniers. King and Clapper Rails occur close 

 to one another or together. Referring to this situation, Lowery (1955, 

 p. 227) made the following statement : 



The King and Clapper Rails are extremely similar in appearance and are, 

 for the most part, simply ecological representatives of each other. Tlie former 

 generally inhabits fresh-water marshes and is widespread in the interior of the 

 United States; the latter is always found on or near the seacoast in brackish- 

 or salt-water marshes. . . . There are brackish marshes in which both breed 

 side by side without intermingling ; . . . 



I find it difficult to believe that the two species do not interbreed in 

 the prairie marshes. Several King-Clapper pairs (and their nests and 



