American Coot 99 



difficulty, but when fairly in the air fly quite steadily 

 and strongly, though they always prefer to avoid danger 

 by hiding in the reeds. They are not very good divers. 



The American Coot nests in colonies among growing 

 reeds in shallow or sometimes in deeper water. The 

 nests which are only a few feet apart, are massive 

 structures of interlaced weeds and rushes, generally 

 floating and anchored among the growing reeds, and 

 high enough out of the water to keep the eggs dry. 

 The eggs, from eight to twelve in number, are pale drab 

 fairly uniformly spotted and dotted with dark bro"wai. 



A clutch of eight taken by I. C. Hall, May 26th, 1902, 



near Greeley, and presented to the Colorado College 



Museum, are rather rough and pointed, and measure 



1*95 X 1*3. Gale found fresh eggs between June 5th and 



20th about Loveland, while Henshaw states that by 



June 22nd they had hardly finished laying at San 



Luis Lakes. 



ORDER LEMICOL^. 



The birds included in this order are chiefly shore and 

 marsh haunting forms, such as Snipes, Sandpipers, 

 Plovers and their allies. 



The members of the order are characterized by a 

 bill which is usually slender, and has a groove on 

 each side with the nostril-opening near its base ; the 

 wings are generally long and there are always eleven 

 primaries ; the legs, too, are generally long and have the 

 lower part of the tibio-tarsus naked ; the toes are usually 

 short and are three or four in number ; the hind toe, if 

 present, is jointed well up above the others ; the 

 anterior toes are fully webbed or not webbed, but most 

 frequently partially webbed. The young birds when 

 hatched, are clothed with down, and able to run about 

 almost at once. 



H 2 



