NATURAL HISTOiRY OF THE KING RAIL 



77 



Figure 31. — Foods of the King Rail in brackish bay marsh, Broadway Meadows, 

 Kent County, Del.: (1) Mud crab {Sesarma reticulatum) ; (2) red-jointed 

 fiddler crab {JJca minax) ; (3) clam {Macoma balthica). (Photograph by 

 Frederick C. Schmid.) 



Small series of stomachs have been collected from a few other local- 

 ities. Most of these were examined by John C. Jones of the U.S. Fish 

 and Wildlife Service. 



ARKANSAS RICEFIELDS 



In the Grand Prairie rice-producing area near Stuttgart, Ark., 118 

 stomachs were collected between 1950 and 1955 by Karl Kitler and 

 myself (table 12). 



Animal life comprised 79 percent of the King Rail's annual diet. 

 It constituted 90 percent or more in spring and summer, dropped to 

 74 percent in the fall (the largest number of stomachs were collected 

 in November and may have made the figure lower than if there had 

 been better representation of the early part of this season), and was 

 still lower (58 percent) in winter. 



The shift in feeding grounds from roadside ditches in the spring 

 to ricefields in summer and early fall, and finally back to natural 

 drainage ditches and small cattail marshes in winter, may account for 



