234 jiA 1,1,1 i),t;. 



This species rarely resorts to IliRlit, aUiiuuL;li when pressed it can tly well; usually it rises 

 just above the surface of the water, the le^^s and feet hanj^ing down at right angles to the body. 

 Even when collecting nesting material it usually swims with it to the structure instead of flying. 

 It li\es on various aquatic insects and succulent portions of aquatic plants and seeds. I have 

 seen it pull up in shallow water flags and other weeds, and eat the soft white bases of the stems. 



Its notes are shrill and loud, and difhcult to syllabicate, but when once heard they are not 

 easy to confound with those of any species of Australian waterfowl except Trilionv-x vfiiti'alis. 



Mr. G. Savidge wrote from Copmanhurst, New South Wales : — " h'ldua tiii^lriilis is plentifully 

 dispersed about the Clarence River and swamps. I have never found its nest." 



Mr. G. A. Keartland wrote me as follows from Melbourne, Victoria: — "The .Australian 

 Coot ( Fiiliia (lusti'nlis) is found wherever permanent swamps exist throughout the continent. 

 These birds are numerous in the vicinity of the Yarra River, close to Melbourne, and at the 

 lagoons near the Fitzroy River, in North-western Australia. I saw them swimming in company 

 with several species of I'uck's and I'igmy Geese. They are very sociable, and several may be 

 killed at a single shot." 



From Broome Hill, South-western .Australia, Mr. Tom Carter wrote: — " Fiilica austrnlis 

 was not a regular visitor about Point Cloates, North-western Australia, but was seen on the 

 inland pools in some numliers in the winters of i8q8 and u;oo. I iiave seen Coots on the 

 Pallinup River, in this district, in February, igio." 



Dr. Lonsdale llolden, while resident at Circular Head, on the nortli-western coast of 

 Tasmania, made the following notes; — "On the loth .April, 1892, there was a flock of about 

 seven Coots (Fiilica aiistralis) in the open water in the swamp near Mr. J. I'oke's house. I 

 procured a specimen by means of a boat, the birds allowing me to get within distance of a long 

 shot. When disturbed they flew off to alight in a more distant part of the open water. Eight 

 days later a specimen was brought me by Mr. W. Ford, which he had shot Irom a flock of 

 thirteen on a lagoon beyond Mount Cameron, on the West Coast. In the spring of 1898 

 thousands were to be seen on the Derwent River, below the causeway at liridi^ewater. From 

 the windows of the railway carriage, as the train runs by, one can daily see large Hocks. In 

 June, 190D, similar numbers were still to be seen above and below Bridgewater." 



The nest is a large open bulky structure, formed of various a(]uatic plants, and lined with 

 sheaths of the stems and leaves of reeds, built in a bunch of reeds or rushes, or on the tops of 

 low bushes growing in the water, the bottom of the structure in some instances being on the 

 latter, usually just above the surface of it. Frequently it is built in the top oi ^ Polygonum bush 

 standing in the water, or it may be ten feet or more away from it. When placed in these high 

 positions, whether in reeds or bushes, there is a rough stairway of reeds leading to the nest. 

 The nests and eggs of this species were amongst the first I found near Melbourne; with three 

 other school-boys, my first experience in searching the rushes and reeds for them resulted in 

 twenty-eight eggs being obtained, the complement of four nests. I"or some years after that, 

 these eggs were so common in collections, they were regarded much in the same light as the 

 eggs of Podiccps uovic-lwllandiir, and were looked upon as not worth the inconvenience of 

 collecting. 



The eggs are seven to ten in number for a sitting, oval in form, the shell being comparatively 

 close-grained, smooth and almost lustreless. They are of a dull whity-brown ground colour, 

 over which Is fairly uniformly sprinkled nuinerous dots and small rounded spots of purplish- 

 brown, with a few faint underlying markings of dull violet-grey. .\s a rule there is but little 

 variation in the colour, shape and disposition of typical eggs of this species, which cannot be 

 mistak'en for those of any other .Australian bird ; occasionally, however, specimens may be found, 

 often one or two in a set, on some of which the markings are in the form of small, even or irregular- 



