BIRDS OF TIIR MARSH AND LAKE 385 



winter to seek the sea-coast, their numbers show 

 Httle diminution here. The Coot, differing in this 

 respect from the Waterhen, is seldom seen on dry 

 land, and, if undisturbed, he rarely wanders far 

 from the more reedy portion of the lake. At Christ- 

 mas-time, however, battues are organized, when 

 guns are posted around the shores and boats are 

 poled through the reed-beds. Then the Coot is 

 seen to be a strong flyer, and soon flight after 

 flight springs into the air, the birds moving in 

 long extended lines, beating their way along the 

 margins and often rising to a considerable height. 

 As they fly the legs are stretched out behind, and 

 the rate of progression is great, equalling that of a 

 rocketing Pheasant. 



The Coot's nest is a dense mass of flags and 

 broken stems, usually built in the densest part of 

 the reed-beds and rising to a foot or more above 

 the water. In the young the bald patch on the 

 forehead is not developed, the head and neck being 

 covered with yellowish filaments. As in the case 

 of the Waterhen, the young birds swim and dive 

 with ease directly they are hatched. 



The Waterhen, or Moorhen, as it was named 

 when the word moor was used to express a marsh 

 or mere, has many of the qualities of the Coot, but 

 is by no means so consistently a bird of the lake. 

 As a rule, the Coot frequents the greater expanses 

 of water, but the Waterhen, on the other hand, is 

 content with the merest trench or with some small 

 isolated pool far remote from lake or river. Con- 

 stantly it may be seen on the reedy cuttings by 

 25 



