NATURAL HISTORY OF THE KING RAIL 



71 



FiGTJEE 29. — Fifty-day-old King Rail with juvenal plumage nearly complete. Tail 

 and wings are undeveloped. TMs individual is slightly behind the average for 

 its age. 



pear. The legs and bill approach, flesh color, and the distal half of the 

 bill is darker than the proximal half. The eyes have brown irides and 

 black pupils. 



By the seventh or eighth week the juvenal body plumage is almost 

 completed, and the young King Kail has a more brownish and less 

 dusky appearance (fig. 29). The cinnamon coloring of the lower 

 throat and breast approaches that of the adult. The juvenal feather- 

 ings of the crown and nape are complete, and the flight feathers and 

 tail are well advanced on most birds. 



There may be considerable variation in weight and size of young 

 rails during the second month of development. At two months a cap- 

 tive male and two captive females weighed 327.0, 258.6, and 202.0 

 grams respectively. 



The juvenal plumage is nearly complete by the age of 60 days. 

 Remiges have developed enough so that some juveniles can make 

 short flights after the ninth week. 



Eidgway and Friedmann (1941, p. 84) have presented a detailed 

 account of the juvenal plumage, as follows : 



Above similar to adult, dark phase, but the dark centers of the feathers of 

 the back, etc., less fuscous, more dull black, the edges grayer and less well de- 

 veloped on the interscapulars and not at all developed on the lower back and 

 rump which are uniformly blackish, the long scapulars being the only feathers 

 with well-developed tawny-olive margins ; lesser and some of the outer greater 



