4^ 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 07 



NORTH-CENTRAL PRAIRIE MARSHES 



Tanner and Hendrickson (1956, p. 54-56) studied the King Rail 

 ill the marshes of Dewey's Pasture Public Shooting Ground, Clay 

 County, Iowa, from April 1951 to April 1953. Their description of 

 the habitat in this area is as follows : 



t The 402racre research area included 28 marshes lying in the hollows between 

 gently sloping prairie knolls. These marshes ranged in depth from several inches 

 to 4 feet and in area from 0.2 acres to 18.0 acres. Of the total 96.4 acres of 

 marsh, 81.4 acres supported emergent vegetation habitable by rails. The remain- 

 ing 15.0 acres consisted of open water. The predominant species of emergent 

 vegetation in the shallowest water along the shores were blue- joint grass 

 [Calamagrostis canadensis'\, prairie cordgrass [Spartina pectinata'], tussock 

 sedge and fox sedge [Carex vulpinoidea]. In waters of intermediate depth the 

 most abundant species of emergent plants were river grass [Fluminea festuca- 

 cea], lake sedge, sweet flag [Acorm calamus] and water smartweed [Polygonum 

 coecineum]. In deeper waters the predominant species were broad-leaved cat- 

 tail, narrow-leaved cat-tail, river bulrush \_8cirpus fluviatilis], hard-stemmed 

 bulrush [Scirpus acutus], pale great bulrush [Sdrpus heterochaetus] and large 

 bur-reed [Sparganium eurycarpum]. The plant names follow Hayden (1943), . . . 

 • . . . Four of the six nests were found in areas of marsh in which lake sedge 

 was the predominant vegetation, while the others were found in pure stands of 

 river bulrush and were attached to plants of that species. Of the four nests 

 located in the lake sedge cover-type, only one was actually attached to plants 

 of that species. The others were supported by tussocks of blue-joint grass or 

 cordgrass, or clumps of hard-stemmed bulrush, which occurred here and there 

 among the lake sedge. 



The estimated number of breeding adults in the 81.4 acres of marsh 

 was 12. In the same area there was an estimated adult breeding popula- 

 tion of 54 Virginia Rails and 52 Soras. 



NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS 



The King Rail rarely breeds in the northern Great Plains, but 

 R. E. Stewart (personal communication) located a breeding pair in a 

 prairie pothole in the Missouri Coteau of western Dickey County, 

 N. Dak., in June 1961. This pothole was a fresh- water type and was 

 composed chiefly of whitetop grass (Fluminea festy^cacea) and slough 

 sedge {Carex atherodes)^ with an outer border of river bulrush. Sev- 

 eral pairs of Virginia Rails and Soras were also observed in this same 

 pothole. Stewart also recorded single King Rails on June 5 and 24, 

 1963, about 12 miles west of Buchanan, Stutsman County, N. Dak., 

 where common cattail and conunon spikerush were the dominant 

 plants. 



