20 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 67 



eggs) have been collected recently in Delaware brackish marshes, in- 

 dicating that they do sometimes interbreed when they occur together 

 (Meanley and Wetherbee, 1962. p. 453^57) . 



Near the village of Grand Chenier, I collected both Kings and Loui- 

 siana Clapper Rails from the same small pond on the south side of the 

 chenier. The dominant vegetation in the immediate area was clump- 

 grass. On the south side of this narrow chenier, in the brackish 

 marshes, the gulf coast form of the Clapper Rail is the dominant 

 species, but the marsh on the landward side is the King Rail's domain. 

 Rivers, such as the Mermenteau, and canals crossing the chenier ex- 

 tend the brackish water landward, and occasionally storm tides also 

 affect large areas of the marsh, extending salt water into the fresh- 

 water zone and changing the habitat. This area may well be described 

 as a mixing ground of plants and animals. A common avian associate 

 of the rails breeding in the clumpgrass and saltgi\ass marsh was the 

 Mottled Duck {An.as fulviguM). 



I also encountered four King Rail broods, still in downy black 

 plumage, and three single adults 4 miles north of Grand Chenier on 

 July 23, 1955. At this station the marsh was composed of a mixture 

 of southern bulrush, cattail, a Sagittaria^ probably Jancifolia, and 

 water-hyacinth . 



A census of King Rails, based on calls, was made in a marsh border- 

 ing the Pecan Island road, 2 miles south of the old Intracoastal Canal, 

 Vermilion Parish, on January 4, 1963. Twenty birds were counted in 

 20 minutes along a 1-mile strip approximately 200 yards wide, at 6 

 p.m. (table 3). The dommant vegetation in the census area was fall 

 panicum (Panicum dicKotoim^arum) . A similar census was made 5 

 miles south of the Intracoastal Canal on the east side of the road to 

 Creole, Cameron Parish, on January 5, 1963. Between 5 :30 p.m. and 

 6 p.m. 24 birds were counted along a 1-mile strip approximately 200 

 yards wide (table 3) . Tlie dominant vegetation types in the area were 

 southern bulrush and fall panicum (fig. 6). Soras were also abundant 

 in the same habitat. 



SOUTHERN RICEFIELDS 



The gradual shift in the domestic rice [ Oryza sativa) growing in- 

 dustry from the South Atlantic coast to the South Central States of 

 Louisiana, Texas, Ai'kansas, and Mississippi after the Civil War 

 opened up a new marsh habitat for King Rails and other water birds. 

 Much of the land where rice is grown today was once a vast natural 

 tall-grass prairie in which the Greater Prairie Chicken {Tyinvanu- 

 chus cupido) was abundant. Harmon. Thomas, and Glasgow (1960, p. 

 153) reported that approximately 3 million acres in this area were 

 devoted to rice growing by 195S. and that this acreage wintered 4 

 million ducks and geese. Many aquatic plants grow in ricefields. and 



