26 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 67 



Highways 60 and 512, I found King Rails common where maiden- 

 cane and pickerelweed formed a high percentage of the vegetation of 

 the wetter marshes (fig. 10). Apple snails {Pomacea paludosa)^ the, 



Figure 10. — Habitat of King Rail, 10 miles south of Fellsmere, Indian River 

 County, Fla., April 1967. Marsh vegetation in foreground is mostly maidencane 

 {Panicum hemitomon) and pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata), in background 

 sawgrass {Cladium jamaicense) . White waterlily {Nymphaea odorata) in 

 pond left of center. Forest community is pond cypress {Taxodium ascendent) . 

 The density of King Rails in this area was estimated at 30 birds per hundred 

 acres. 



major food of the Limpkin {Aramus guarauna)^ and the eggs of 

 these snails, were scattered abundantly throughout the wetter marshes, 

 but were absent from the drier ones. Houses of the round-tailed 

 muskrat {Neofiber alleni) were abundant in both wetter and drier 

 marshes. Limpkins and rails use the tops of these houses as their 

 "dinner tables." King Rails were most commonly in the drier marshes. 

 I estimated a density of approximately 30 birds per hundred acres 

 in a tract on the east side of Highway 512 (table 3) . 



On the Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation, Glades County, I 

 heard and saw King Rails in marshes composed largely of pickerel- 

 weed, bull tongue {Sagittaria lancifolia) , and dotted smartweed (fig. 

 11). While on a trip through the reservation in January 1958, I saw 

 two very dark-plumaged King Rails in a small pickerelweed marsh. 



