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NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 67 



Figure 9. — Nest of King Rail in wet rice stubble, Mamou, La., May 5, 1957. 

 Photographed as found. 



In 1955 a rice farmer at Mamou located six Fulvous Tree Duck 

 nests in a 400-acre block of rice, and in the same locality I found 22 

 active Purple Gallinule nests in a 10-acre section of a 25-acre ricefield. 

 In the Arkansas ricefields the Purple Gallinule is an uncommon 

 breeding bird. There are no breeding records for the Fulvous Tree 

 Duck in Arkansas ricefields, but there are several early fall occurrence 

 records. The Short-billed Marsh Wren has been found nesting in 

 Arkansas ricefields in August and September. 



King Eails are more secretive in winter than at other seasons and 

 often are present in good numbers in some localities although seldom 

 or never seen. For 5 years in the Arkansas rice belt, I was in the field 

 daily without ever seeirg one in the dead of winter. Yet they were 

 present, as a mink trapper brought me several each January. 



On the Arkansas Grand Prairie, I have often come across trails 

 forming tunnels which often continue for many feet beneath the 

 matted vegetation of a ditch bank. These trails appear to have been 

 made by some mammal, yet many tell-tale signs, particularly the 

 characteristic regurgitated pellets and roundish droppings about 

 the size of a silver dollar, are proof that King Eails use them. Kegard- 

 less of whether these trails are made by rails, mink {Mustela vison), 

 rabbits {SyVvilagus fioridanm) , or rats (unidentified) , trapping indi- 

 cates that they are used by all four species. King Rails also spend 

 the winter in small marshy tracts along the bayous that dissect the 

 Grand Prairie. 



At Stuttgart, Ark., a King Rail used a long water pipe about 11/^ 

 feet in diameter and running from a pumphouse to a small reservoir 



