N^AffURAL HISTORY OF THE KING RAIL 



23 



Figure 8. — Arkansas Grand Prairie near Stuttgart, Ark., May 1952. Rails nest 

 in roadside ditches in April and May. Vegetation in ditches is mostly softrush 

 (Juncus effusus) and two sedges {Garex stipata and C. hyalinolepis) . In June, 

 rails move into ricefields (left of ditch) for late nesting or renesting as rice 

 begins to form nesting cover. 



later (1962), in those same ditches, awl-fruited sedge {Carex stipata) 

 was the dominant plant, and four of six nests located during May 

 of that year were constructed of this plant. 



Old rice stubble is sometimes used for nesting. On the southwestern 

 Louisiana rice prairie where farming is less diversified than on the 

 Arkansas Grand Prairie, many farmers let the stubble fields lie out 

 through the winter and spring for cattle grazing. In one such wet 

 stubble field at Mamou, Evangeline Parish, I located two rice-straw 

 nests on May 5, 1957 (fig. 9). 



During the summer, when the rice is growing and the fields appear 

 as a vast green marshland, virtually all King Rails in the rice belt 

 frequent the fields. Some are renesting, and others are wandering 

 about with their broods in search of crayfish, minnows, and aquatic 

 insects which abound here. 



Nesting associates of the King Rail in Louisiana ricefields are the 

 Fulvous Tree Duck {Dendrocygna hicolor)^ the Purple Gallinule 

 {Porphyrula martinica)^ the Least Bittern {IxohrycJms exilis), and 

 along the southern border of the rice belt the Mottled Duck. The most 

 common bird in the area is the Red- winged Blackbird {Agelaim 

 phoenicem). In the northern part of the principal Louisiana rice 

 belt, at Mamou, Evangeline Parish, I found the Long-billed Marsh 

 Wren {Telmatodytes palustris) nesting in rice. 



