542 FULICA AMERICANA, AMERICAN COOT. 



or another. I foimd it breeding aloug the Red River of the North, 

 about Pembina, in the reedy pools bordering the river, and iu the 

 prairie sloughs, there as well as elsewhere iu Nortern Montana and 

 Dakota. Eggs procured at Pembina, June 19th, contained young nearly 

 ready to hatch; and during the following month I frequently saw newly 

 hatched young swimming about with their parents. They are very 

 l)retty and curious little creatnres, covered with sooty-blackish down, 

 fantastically striped with rich orange-red, and with vermilion bill, 

 tipped with black. The nidification of the Coot is not the least inter- 

 esting portion of its history. The mode of nesting is most like that of 

 the Grebes. The nest is said to be sometimes a floating one, moored to 

 the stems of reeds, rising and falling with the tide. One author, in 

 illustration of the insecurity of the bird's home, has related that once 

 during a storm a nest became detached from its moorings by a rise of the 

 water, and drifted about, the parent nevertheless remaining at her post 

 of duty, and safely hatching out her brood during the cruise. This may 

 or may not have been a strict statement of fact. Among manj^ Coots' 

 nests I have found, one was built in a clump of reeds where the water was 

 about knee-deep ; it was a bulky affair, resting securely on a mass of 

 reedy debris. The nest itself was built of the same materials, heaped up 

 and little hollowed ; it was about fifteen inches in diameter, and half as 

 liigh. The reed-stems appeared to have been bitten by the bird into 

 short pieces 5 there was no special lining. This nest was a floating one, 

 in the sense that the platform of broken-down reeds upon which it was 

 built rested on the water ; but it was perfectly secure, raised out of the 

 wet, and though loosely constructed, could be lifted up intact. It con- 

 tained eleven eggs nearly ready to hatch. They measured from 1.75 to 

 2.00 in length, by 1.20 to 1.35 in breadth, exhibiting the usual variation 

 in contour as well as in absolute size. The shape is much like that ot 

 an average hen's ^gg — perhaps rather more pointed. The ground is 

 clear clay-color, uniformly and minutely dotted all over with innumer- 

 able specks of dark brown ; a few of the bolder markings are of the 

 size of a pin's head, but the greater number are mere points. But the 

 eggs are not always so uniformly and finely dotted as those of this set 

 were ; sometimes the spots being aggregated into blotches of some size, 

 or tending chiefly to wreath around the larger end. Various other 

 nests examined contained an average of ten eggs; some were built just 

 like the one described, while others were on the ground, in compara- 

 tively dry spots around the margin of the pools, hidden in rank grass; 

 in all the materials and mode of construction were much the same. 



In the southwest, where the Coots are apparent!}" resident, I fre- 

 quently observed them, and they are probably more abundant than one 

 might suppose; for, like their allies the Rails, they are naturally much 

 withdrawn from general observation by their habits, and by the intri- 

 cate character of their resorts. While steaming along the Colorado 

 River, in September, Coots frequently appeared for a moment in places 

 where the banks were fringed with reeds, to croak a note or two at 

 sight of the boat, and then paddle out of sight again. The most satis- 

 factory observations I t^ver made upon them was at a point on the Mojave 

 River, iu California, where the stream became a broken chain of reedy 

 lagoons, alternating with half-submergetl tracts of oozy marsh, grown 

 up to short crisp grass. There were great numbers of Ducks here, in 

 October, along with Hutchins' and Snow Geese, Herons, and a variety 

 01 small waders. While wading about waist-deep, in default of any 

 more elegant or less fatiguing method of duck- shooting, I continually 

 heard the gabbling of the Coots among the rushes, where they wera 



