NATURAL HISTORY OF THE KING RAIL 



73 



(cheeks) against the ground. Shortly thereafter, and until they 

 reach the age of I/2 to 2 months, they assume a sitting posture for 

 sleeping. Older young sleep more in the manner of adults, standing 

 on one or both legs, with the head turned around and the bill tucked 

 beneath the feathers of the back, or with the neck drawn in and the 

 bill pointed down to the ground. 



Competition 



Virtually no peck order was exhibited by captive King Kail chicks 

 during the first 2 weeks of life, w^ien they fed together amicably in 

 one area. Thereafter, they competed for food, and after obtaining a 

 morsel fr'om the common feeding site, would run away and ingest it 

 or run around the cage for several minutes before swallowing it. 



Because of size variation of individuals older than 2 weeks of age, 

 there was an obvious peck order, but with little antagonism. A smaller 

 or more agile chick often would not hesitate to steal a morsel from a 

 larger competitor. 



Bathing 



When bathing, the King Rail assumes a partial squatting position. 

 By an up and down movement of the legs, the body moves in one 

 cadence, then the wings in another, and finally the head, dipping water 

 and flipping it over the back, in still another. The body feathers are 

 extended (somewhat ruffled), the closed wings are loose and moving, 

 and the head is immersed while cocked sideways, presumably ior more 

 surface area, and hence functions better as a paddle in flipping water 

 over the body. Water also reaches the plumage through the up and 

 down action of the body and the movements of the wings. The bath- 

 ing operation usually takes 1 or 2 minutes. A captive bird evicts 

 another from the bathtub by pecking at its feet rather than at some 

 other part of its body. 



WINTER BEHAVIOR OF CAPTIVE RAILS 



During extended freezes or when there is a snow cover, water for 

 drinking is obtained by ingesting snow or small chunks of ice. Cap- 

 tive King Rails were observed ingesting snow and ice during periods 

 of heavy snowfall and during freezeups in a cage on Bluegill Pond at 

 the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, Md. One bird was 

 observed as it ingested a chunk of ice 3 inches in length and % inch 

 in width. 



Captive King and Clapper Rails at Bluegill Pond preferred to 

 rest on the ice rather than in a more protected section of the cage pro- 

 vided with a windbreak and a bedding of straw (fig. 30) . During alter- 

 nating periods of freezing and thawing, spherical chunks of ice, up to 

 the size of a baseball, stuck to the tails of the Clapper Rails, and smaller 

 particles stuck to their breasts. Strangely, particles of ice virtually 

 never adhered to any part of the plumage of the King Rails. 



348-693 0—69 6 



