THE MOOR-HEN. 469 



overhanging the water. The nest is a large structure, 

 made of rushes and dry flags, and is easy of detection. 

 It is very liable, too, to be swept away by any sudden rise 

 in a river. Added to which, the young frequently fall a 

 prey to pike. But as the bird has two, and sometimes 

 three, broods in a year, each consisting of from six to 

 eight, it remains undiminished in numbers. The nest is 

 sometimes placed in a tree at a distance from the water. 

 When this is the case, as the habits of the young birds 

 are aquatic, immediately on their breaking the egg the 

 old birds convey them in their claws to the water. An 

 instance is recorded in the Zoologist of a female Gallinule 

 being seen thus employed carrying a young one in each 

 foot : it has been observed, too, that in such cases the 

 male bird builds a second nest, near the water's edge, to 

 which the young retire for shelter during the night, until 

 they are sufliciently fledged to accompany their parents to 

 their ordinary roosting-places in trees. 



THE COMMOISr COOT. 



FULICA ATRA. 



Upper plumage black, tinged on the back with grey ; under parts bluish grey • 

 frontal disk large, pure white ; bill white, tinged with rose-red ; irides crimson ; 

 feet grey, tinged with green ; part of the tibia orange-yeUow. Length sixteen 

 inches. Eggs brownish, speckled with reddish brown. 



The Coot, seen from a distance, either on land or water, 

 might be mistaken for a Gallinule, flirting up its tail 

 when it swims, jerking its head to and fro, and when on 

 land strutting about with a precisely similar movement of 

 all its members. On a nearer examination, it is clearly 

 distinguished by its larger size and the white bare spot 

 above the bill, in front, from which it is often called the 

 Bald-headed Coot. It is only during the summer season 

 that the two birds can be compared ; for while the Galli- 

 nule remains in the same waters all the year round, the 



