664 FULICA ATRA. 



of the water ; but by heaping a large quantity of the same 

 materials together, raise the fabric sufficiently above water 

 to keep the eggs dry. In this buoyant state a sudden flood, 

 attended by a gale of wind, has been known to drive them 

 from their moorings ; and we are assured by an intelligent 

 observer of nature, that he has seen a nest floated from one 

 side of a large piece of water to the other, with the bird upon 

 it." The eggs, which vary in number from six to ten, are 

 much larger than those of the Water-hen, but very similar, 

 being of an elongated oval light yellowish-grey or stone-colour, 

 "marked all over with dots and small spots of brownish-black ; 

 their average length two inches and one- twelfth, their greatest 

 breadth an inch and five-twelfths. The young are at first 

 covered with stiflish black down, tipped with white ; the hind 

 part of the head yellow ; the frontal membrane blood-red ; 

 the feet dusky-green. 



In the more exposed and colder parts of Britain, the Coots 

 leave their summer haunts toward the end of autumn. Mon- 

 tagu remarks that " the vast flocks seen in Southampton 

 River, and other salt-water inlets, in winter, most probably 

 breed farther north, at least a great part of them ;" and this 

 is no doubt the case, for there are many breeding places of the 

 Coot in Scotland, which are entirely deserted in winter. 

 Nor are Coots usually in that country to be seen even in the 

 estuaries or on muddy sea shores, as in England and Ireland. 

 In the Hebrides, however, I have seen them remain all winter, 

 betaking themselves to the sea when the reedy lake to which 

 they resort was frozen ; and on Duddingston Loch, near 

 Edinburgh, some continue all the year. 



Although the flesh of the Coot does not afford an agree- 

 able food, delicate and white as it appears, and often plenti- 

 fully mixed with fat, which, however, has an unpleasant taste, 

 vast numbers are shot on the coast of England in winter, not 

 only for the markets, but as a pleasant and gentlemanly 

 amusement. " The plan that I have found best," says 

 Colonel Hawker, " for slaughtering the Coots by wholesale 

 is, either to listen for them before daylight, and rake them 

 down at the grey of a white frosty morning, or watch them 

 at some distance in the afternoon, and set in to them as late 



