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ducted to a place of safety by the male bird ; whilst the female remains about the 

 nest, manifesting as much alarm at your presence as if her brood was actually 

 there. 



The young birds have a very grotesque appearance, with black bodies, red 

 heads, and white bills ; with yellow down sticking to their heads and necks on first 

 quitting the nest. When they are in danger the parents swim anxiously round 

 the object of alarm, uttering low chucks, and sometimes a kind of bark ; in pro- 

 ducing this latter note the beak is opened as wide as it will permit. The common 

 call-note of the Coot is a loud, chucking, mournful note, which may at times be 

 heard issuing from a dozen different parts of the lake. I have likewise known it 

 emit a noise resembling that of a Fowl before laying. 



In general the Coot is rather a shy bird, but in some places, as at Sudbury, 

 they are extremely familiar ; and if you sit down near the edge of the water, and 

 remain quiet a short time, they will swim up to reconnoitre you, without the 

 slightest indications of alarm : and their peculiar habits and attitudes are then 

 studied with ease. When swimming it never flirts up its tail, like the Gallinule, 

 but moves its head backwards and forwards, often erecting the feathers of its 

 whole body, and setting up its wings in the manner of the Swan. The Coot has 

 a heavy body and short wings, and is, therefore, little adapted for flight. When- 

 ever it attempts to rise into the air, which is but seldom, the feet are allowed to 

 trail in the water, as if it were unwilling to leave its favourite element even for a 

 moment. It always preens its feathers in the water, and occasionally tumbles over 

 in this element in a most remarkable manner, and apparently with no other view 

 than for its own amusement. When it has a nest to guard, it seems entirely to 

 lose all shyness and fear of man, and is by no means easily driven off when sitting, 

 and will even allow itself to be touched gently with a stick, but with true birdish 

 wisdom endeavouring to cover its head. If the female is disturbed the male 

 (which, at that season, remains " within call") immediately swims up, and becomes 

 so bold as to approach within a few yards of where you are standing. On your 

 leaving the place the male generally follows to a considerable distance, as if to 

 attract your attention ; while the female slily enters her nest on the other side of 

 the patch of herbage in which it is situated. If she is again disturbed she quits 

 her nest much less reluctantly than before ; but, however often she may be driven 

 off in the course of a single day, I have never known her desert her charge, as so 

 frequently happens with the Gallinule. 



When the Coot leaves its nest it never covers the eggs ; and I have often 

 been surprised that the eggs and young of this and other aquatic species are 

 not more frequently plundered by the Water Rat, with which the aquatic plants 

 abound, than appears to be the case ; but after many years close observation 

 of these birds I have never discovered, with certainty, that they were molested 

 by this quadruped. As the bird often quits its nest for a considerable time, 



