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Black rail (Laterallus jamaicensis (Gmelin))

Breeding Range. Hypothetical. The possibility that this species may breed in North Dakota is suggested on the basis of a very surprising report by Peabody (1905). He refers to the occurrence of the Black Rail in the Big Coulee area of southwestern Benson County as follows: "And the Black Rail is here, though science will flatly deny it". . . . . . . . . "This Black and Yellow Rail colony is very small. I doubt, greatly, if there be more than a pair or two of the Black Rails, while there has never been found any evidence that of the Yellow Rails there are more than six or eight mature birds in the colony."