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Breeding Range (Fig. 60.) Local breeding populations are well established in southwestern Benson County along the glacial meltwater valley and adjoining ravines of the Big Coulee. They were first discovered in this area in 1899 by Fred Maltby. Considerable information concerning nesting habits and habitat of these birds was obtained by Mr. Maltby and later by Reverend P. B. Peabody, as documented in several published accounts (Maltby 1915b; Peabody 1905, 1922, and 1925).

A smaller population of Yellow Rails also was discovered in the northwestern corner of Benson County at Pleasant Lake (Maltby 1915b). In addition, this species has been recorded at other localities during recent years including the Turtle Mountains in Bottineau County during the summer of 1967 (R. E. Stewart, Jr.), the J. Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge in McHenry County during June and July, 1968 (B. G. Murray, Jr.), an area about 12 miles northeast of Wilton in McLean County on June 29, 1972 (R. N. Randall), and along the White Earth River valley in Mountrail County on July 10, 1974 (RES).

Breeding Habitat. Yellow Rails appear to be restricted to fens or boggy swales that are fed by springwater. These habitats include areas that could be described as quagmires with quaking surface mats of emergent vegetation. Stands of common cattail and softstem bulrush with intervening expanses of northern reedgrass, water sedge, beaked sedge, narrowleaf cottongrass and common waterhemlock often represent the predominant emergent plant associations in these situations.

Nesting. Breeding season: Late May to late July; peak, early June to mid-July. Extreme egg dates (12 nests): May 25 [1905] to June 19 [1899-a nest with 9 fresh eggs] in Benson County (Maltby 1915b). According to Peabody (1922), most egg-laying takes place between the 1st and 10th of June. Shells of hatched eggs were observed as early as June 16 [1900] in Benson County (Maltby 1915b).

Nests were situated in dense emergent vegetation consisting of fine-leaved or coarse-leaved grasses and grass-like plants. Many nests were built on wet ground (Maltby 1915b), and others were over water up to four inches in depth (Peabody 1905). Most were underneath canopies of prone dead grass within three or four rods of small spring-fed brooks (Peabody 1922).

Indicated clutch size (5 nests): 9 and 10 eggs; mean, 9.4 eggs. Peabody (1905) found that the clutch size usually ranged from 8 to 10 eggs; sets of 9 eggs perhaps were most common.

Figure 60. Breeding Range of Yellow Rail.