Feeding Behavior 



King Kails usually feed in areas concealed by plant cover or in com- 

 paratively open areas where they blend well with their surroundings 

 and are only a few steps from cover. Sometimes, however, they are 

 very conspicuous, as when feeding at low tide on mud flats or in 

 open roadside ditches. Dawson (1903, p. 443) observed such feeding 

 activity in Ohio : 



In a region where they were in little fear of molestation, I have seen them 

 deploy upon an extensive mud flat in broad daylight and go prodding about in 

 company with migrant sandpipers, for the worms which riddle the ooze with 

 their burrows. 



In tidewater areas, feeding probably occurs most frequently at low 

 tide. Whenever I visit the brackish marshes of the Delaware Bay at 

 ebb tide, I see King and Clapper Rails feeding in the tidal creek beds. 



I suspect that King Rails do very little feeding at night, although 

 they are sometimes active during this period, as they are occasionally 

 heard calling, particularly during the courtship period. King Rails 

 that I kept in captivity in Louisiana and Maryland were relatively in- 

 active at night. In fact, some of them would habitually return to a 

 favorite spot in the cage each evening at dusk, sit down, and remain 

 quiet for long periods. 



Generally King Rails forage in water so shallow that only the bill, 

 or part of it, disappears beneath the surface while food is sought. 

 However, on March 25, 1954, on the Arkansas Grand Prairie, I observ- 

 ed a pair of rails feeding in a roadside ditch where the water varied 

 from 6 to 12 inches in depth. Both of these birds immersed their entire 

 heads and necks in water, and several times their entire bodies disap- 

 peared beneath the surf ace. In fact, they oaoasionally fed by "tipping 

 up" like dabbling ducks. 



Since King Rails are accustomed to procuring their food from the 

 water, if perchance they obtain a food item from land and are near an 

 aquatic environment the}^ usually carry the morsel to the water and 

 immerse it before ingestion. 



PELLET CASTING 



Both the King Rail and the Clapper Rail, whose major food is crus- 

 taceans, reject most of the exoskeletal fragments of these animals 

 through the regurgitation of pellets (fig. 32) . 



King Rail pellets examined in Arkansas and Maryland were com- 

 posed of crayfish and aquatic insect fragments. Nearly every pellet 



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