Description 



SIZE 



The male King Kail is generally larger and heavier than the female. 

 Males in my study weighed about 100 grams more than females. Six 

 of nine adult males weighed over 400 grams each, and the average of 

 all nine was 415.4 grams, whereas the average of nine females was 

 306.0 grams. These weights do not differ greatly from those of Clapper 

 Eails (table 6). 



Measurements of body length and wing length also reflect the differ- 

 ence in size of the sexes. These are compared in table 7 along with 

 measurements of the Clapper Rail, which is somewhat smaller in 

 these dimensions. 



ADULT PLUMAGE 



There are no apparent differences between the plumages of the male 

 and the female King Rail. Ridgway and Friedmann (1941, p. 83) 

 described the plumage as follows : 



Forehead, crown, occiput, and nape deep, rich mummy brown, the feathers of 

 the forehead and crown with shiny black shafts ; scapulars, interscapulars, 

 upper and lower back, rump, upper tail coverts, and rectrices deep fuscous to 

 fuscous-black, the feathers broadly edged with tawny-olive to buckthorn brown, 

 the edges becoming broader on the more posterior parts, often occupying (be- 

 tween the two margins) more than half the width of the feather on the long 

 scapulars and the feathers of the rump and the upper tail coverts, narrow on the 

 anterior interscapulars ; upper wing coverts deep hazel to bright russet, some 

 of the outer median and .greater coverts with narrow whitish tips and a con- 

 cealed narrow subterminal whitish band ; remiges sepia, the outer web of the 

 outermost primary often slightly paler — Saccardo's umber ; a light strip from the 

 base of the maxilla over and behind the eye light pinkish cinnamon ; rest of lores, 

 circumocular area, cheeks and auriculars grayish mummy brown ; lower cheeks 

 and sides of throat cinnamon ; chin and middle of upper throat white ; lower 

 throat, breast, and upper abdomen cinnamon becoming paler in the mid-ventral 

 part of the upper abdomen, the feathers faintly tipped with white on the upper 

 abdomen, without pale tips on the breast feathers ; middle of abdomen light buff ; 

 thighs similiar but transversely barred with deep drab to hair brown; flanks 

 sepia barred with white, the feathers tipped with white and crossed by two or 

 three white bars each; vent similar to flanks; under tail coverts white, not 

 huffy, and with sepia areas reduced making the white bars wider; the outer 

 webs of the lateral ones wholly white ; axillars and under wing coverts deep 

 rich sepia tipped and crossed by narrow bars of white ; . . . 



Ridgeway and Friedmann described the dark and light phase adult 

 plumages of the King Rail, and suggested that the light phase rarely 



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