CINEREOUS COOT. 17 



it is highly probable that some few may occupy the marshes of the 

 interior, in the vicinity of the ponds and lakes, for this purpose : those 

 retired situations being well adapted to the hatching and rearing of their 

 young. In the Southern States, particularly South Carolina, they are 

 well known ; but the Floridas appear to be their principal rendezvous, 

 for the business of incubation. " The Coot," says William Bartram, 

 " is a native of North America, from Pennsylvania to Florida. They 

 inhabit large rivers, fresh-water inlets or bays, lagoons, &c., where they 

 swim and feed amongst the reeds and grass of the shores ; particularly 

 in the river St. Juan, in East Florida, where they are found in immense 

 flocks. They are loquacious and noisy, talking to one another night 

 and day ; are constantly on the water, the broad lobated membranes on 

 their toes enabling them to swim and dive like ducks."* 



I observed this species to be numerous, during the winter, in the fresh 

 water ponds, situated in the vicinity of the river St. Juan or St. John, 

 in East Florida ; but I did not see them in the river. The food which 

 they obtain in these places must be very abundant and nutritious ; as 

 the individuals which I shot were excessively fat. 



One male specimen weighed twenty-four ounces, avoirdupois. They 

 associate with the Common GaWmvile {CralUnula cliloroiyus) ; but there 

 is not, perhaps, one of the latter for twenty of the former. The Cine- 

 reous Coot is sixteen inches in length, and twenty-eight in extent ; bill 

 one and a half inch long, white, the upper mandible slightly notched 

 near the tip, and marked across with a band of chestnut, the lower 

 mandible marked on each side with a squarish spot of the like color, 

 edged on the lower part with a bright yellow or gamboge, thence to the 

 tip pale horn color ; membrane of the forehead, dai'k chestnut brown ; 

 irides cornelian red; beneath the eyes, in most specimens, a whitish 

 spot ; the head and neck are of a deep shining black, resembling satin ; 

 back and scapulars dirty greenish olive ; shoulders, breast, and wing- 

 coverts, slate blue ; the under parts are hoary ; vent black ; beneath 

 the tail pure white ; primaries and secondaries slate, the former tipped 

 with black, the latter Avith white, which does not appear when the wing 

 is closed ; outer edges of the wings white ; legs and toes yellowish green, 

 the scalloped membrane of tlie latter lead color ; middle toe, including 

 the claw, tliree inches and three-quarters long. 



The bird from which the foregoing description was taken, was shot 

 on the Delaware, below Philadelphia, the 29th of October, 1813. It 

 was an old male, an uncommonly fine specimen, and weighed twenty- 

 three ounces avoirdupois. It was deposited in Pcalc's Museum. 



The young birds differ somewhat in their plumage, that of the head 



* Letter from Mr. Bartram to the author. 

 Vol. III.— 2 



