230 LOBE-FOOTED BIRDS. 



mens from the distant table-land of Mexico. We may, 

 therefore, conclude almost with certainty, that the Coot of 

 America, indifferent to climate, dwells and breeds in every 

 part of the North American continent, over a range of 

 probably more than 50 degrees of latitude ! Nocturnal in 

 their habits, and dispersing themselves far and wide over 

 every watery solitude, they appear, in many places, to have 

 disappeared for the season, until the numbers, swelled by 

 their prolific broods, and impelled at the approach of winter 

 to migrate for food, now begin to show themselves in the 

 lakes, pools, and estuaries in the vicinity of the sea, from 

 which they gradually recede towards the south, as the 

 severity of the season compels them, being unable to subsist 

 amidst the ice. In this way they proceed, accumulating in 

 numbers as they advance, so that in the inundated and 

 marshy tracts of Florida, particularly along the banks of the 

 St. Juan, they are seen in winter, congregated in vast and 

 noisy flocks. In the milder latitudes, their whole migra- 

 tions will be limited to a traverse from the interior to the 

 vicinity of the sea, while those which visit the wilderness 

 of Upper Canada, where they are abundant in the summer, 

 will probably migrate from 25 to 30 degrees every spring 

 and autumn. 



The Coots arrive in Pennsylvania, about the beginning 

 of October. They appear in Fresh Pond, in this vicinity, 

 about the first week in September. A pair took up their 

 residence in this small lake, about the 15th of April ; and 

 in June they are occasionally seen accompanied by their 

 young. The nest, eggs, and manners, during the period 

 of reproduction, are yet unknown. Timorous and defence- 

 less, they seek out the remotest solitudes to breed, where, 

 amidst impassable bogs and pools, the few individuals which 

 dwell in the same vicinity are readily overlooked, and with 

 difficulty discovered, from the pertinacity of the older birds 



