NATURAL HISTOiRY OF THE KING RAIL 



93 



on empty space. Oftimes the ^nner doesn't even see the rail announced by 

 Mark right, Mark left, or simply ''Dah he goes." 



On the Patuxent marshes in the 1940's, I would flush about 2 Vir- 

 ginia and 1 King to each 100 Sora. 



Eagle Lake area, Tex. 



The method of hunting King Eails in the Texas ricefields was 

 described by Dev Klapp (1961, p. 14) : 



On the Gulf Coast the rail is found in the great ricefields where it seeks its 

 food. The close-knit rice stalks afford the hird ideal cover, and any attempt to 

 hunt such terrain in an orthodox manner is next to useless. The hidden rail 

 would merely sneak away as the hunter approached and never be seen. 



So Texans waste no time slopping around through ankle-deep gumbo mud 

 chasing a bird that refuses to flush. They patiently wait until rice harvest time, 

 then, by the hundreds they take to the fields. 



Beginning about October 1, reapers appear in the fields to gather the grain. 

 The machines take positions at the outer i>erimeter of the fields and, as the sun 

 rises above the horizon, go into action. Snorting and rocking, they circle the 

 fields time and again, gradually working toward the center. Running side by 

 side, usually in pairs, they cut a swath some 80 feet wide. 



The hunters wait until all but a 30-foot swath of rice is cut, then hurriedly 

 take stands to each side of the uncut grain. In this narrow strip, they know, all 

 the rail in the field are crowded. Reluctant to fiy, the birds have crept through 

 the standing grain, just ahead of the oncoming machines, until forced into this 

 bit of cover. 



As the reapers get about half-way through this swath the birds begin to panic. 

 That's when the fun starts. A hunter suddenly shouts, "There's one!" as the 

 first rail rises from cover, almost straight up. Before the bird has set its course 

 it is brought down. 



The combine (fig. 35) has replaced the reaper in most areas, but the 

 method of hunting is still the same. 



Other areas 



Milton B. Trautman (personal communication) reported that be- 

 tween 1907 and 1918 King Eails were hunted in the marshes of Indian 

 Lake, Logan County, Ohio, and that bags of half a dozen birds a day 

 were not uncommon. M. G. Vaiden, an ornithologist from Rosedale, 

 Miss., told me that while Bobwhite hunting in the delta, January 30, 

 1945, he shot five King Eails and three Bobwhites; and on January 

 27, 1946, he shot four King Eails. The Eails were flushed from boggy 

 spots in growths of ragweed {Ambrosia sp.) . 



In the days of the market gunner, rails were shot in much greater 

 numbers than at present, and were sold in the markets of most of the 

 large cities along the eastern seaboard. To the epicures, the King 

 Eail of the fresh-water marsh was far superior to the Clapper Eail 

 of the salt marsh. Charles S. Westcott ("Homo") writing in Forest 

 and Stream magazine in the 1880's, said (Stone, 1937, p. 332) : 



Many of the latter, however, carefully plucked were palmed off for King Rails 

 on those less exi>ert in identifying them. 



