NATURAL HISTORY OF THE KING RAIL 



47 



Del., July 30, 1964, had nearly completed molting. Its new remiges 

 and rectrices were about half grown, and there was evidence of a late 

 stage of feather replacement in all tracts except the head and upper 

 neck regions. 



A captive subadult female began molting wing and tail feathers by 

 the latter half of July. Two of three adults collected in Delaware on 

 August 23, 1963, had nearly completed their molts of wing and tail 

 feathers ; the third had no wing or tail feathers. 



On August 3, 1967, 1 took two birds from the Nanticoke River marsh, 

 Vienna, Md., that had not yet begun to molt. 



The molting period for the Clapper Rail in the Middle Atlantic 

 States is apparently the same as that for the King Rail. A pair of molt- 

 ing Clapper Rails in breeding condition was collected at Woodland 

 Beach, June 29, 1964. Only the body feathers were being molted. 



Robert E. Stewart (1952, p. 57) trapped and banded many Clapper 

 Rails at Chincoteague, Va., and made the following notes on their 

 molt: 



During the trapping period [July 16- August 31] most of the adults were under- 

 going their post-nuptial molt . . . The individual molting period lasts about one 

 month. The first adult observed in full molt was trapped on July 21. During the 

 period August 24 to August 31 (period just before hunting season) a total of 11 

 adults were trapped. Of these only 5 had completed their molt and were capable 

 of flight, while 4 were in heavy molt, and were completely flightless. Surprisingly 

 enough the other two adults had not even started to molt and were in very worn 

 plumage. 



In a group of young captive King Rails, the postjuvenal molt was 

 underway when they were 50 days old. Molting of the body feathers 

 began before the young could fly, when the flight feathers were about 

 one-half to three- fourths unsheathed. Another group of young King 

 Rails, raised in captivity after being hatched on June 7, completed 

 their postjuvenal molt by the end of the first week of September. 



