X42 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



•with bluish terminally, a spot near the end of each mandible and the 

 frontal shield dark brown ; belly uniform slaty plumbeous. Winter 

 adult : Similar, but frontal shield reduced in size, and the belly suffused 

 with whitish. Young : Most like winter plumage, but lower parts much 

 suffused with whitish, especially on throat and belly ; frontal shield rudi- 

 mentary, and bill, in life, dull flesh-color, tinged with olive-greenish, the 

 spots obsolete (dull light brownish in dried skins). Downy young : 

 Blackish, the head and neck ornamented with orange- or salmon-colored 

 crisp filamentous bristles, the upper parts more sparsely covered with 

 similar but paler (whitish or pale orange-buff) filaments ; bill orange- 

 red, the upper mandible tipped with black. Length 13.00-16.00, wing 

 7.25-7.60, culmen (to commencement of frontal shield) 1.25-1.60, tarsus 

 2.00-2.20, middle toe 2.45-2.65. Eggs 6-12, 1.91 X 1-32. Hab. Whole of 

 North America, Middle America, and most of West Indies ; north to 

 Greenland and Alaska, south to Veragua (and Trinidad ?). 



221. F. americana (Gmel.). American Coot. 

 61 Frontal shield whitish (pale brownish in dried skins), like bill, oval or ellip- 

 tical, much wrinkled ; bill more slender ; otherwise, very similar to F. 

 americana. Hab. Lesser Antilles (Guadeloupe and St. John's). 



F. caribaea Kidgw. Caribbean Coot.^ 



1 Fnlica cariheea PaDGW., Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. vii. Sept. 17, 1884, 359. 



