84 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



Subfamily FULICIN-ffi.— The Coots. 



6. Fulica. Nostrils, and proportionate length of toes and tarsus, as in Gallinula; 

 toes bordered with a very wide, scalloped, lateral membrane; inner posterior face 

 of tarsus covered with small scales, as in Gallinula. 1 



Subfamily FULICIN-ffi. 

 Genus FULICA Linn.eus. 



Fulica Linn. S. N. ed. 10, 1758, 152; ed. 12, i, 1766, 257. Type, F. atra Linn. 



Chab. Very similar to Gallinula, but the toes margined by a broad, deeply scalloped 

 lateral membrane. Bill shorter than the head, straight, strong, compressed, and advancing 

 into the feathers of the forehead, where it frequently forms a wide and somewhat project- 

 ing frontal plate; nostrils in a groove, with a large membrane, near the middle of the bill. 

 Wings rather short, second and third quills usually longest; tail very short; tarsus robust, 

 shorter than the middle toe, with very distinct transverse scales: toes long, each having 

 semi-circular lobes, larger on the inner side; hind toe rather long, lobed. 



Almost the only difference between Fulica and Gallinula consists in the single character 

 of the toes, as pointed out above. The two genera are, however, quite distinct, since there 

 appears to be no species known that is intermediate in the charaoter of the feet. 



Fulica americana Gmel. 



AMERICAN COOT. 



Popular synonyms. Mud-hen; White- billed, or Ivory-billed, Mud- hen; Crow Duck. 



Fulica americana Gmel. S. N. i,pt. ii, 1788, 704.— Sw. & Rich. F. B.-A. ii, 1831, 404.— Nutt. 

 Man. ii, 1834, 229.— Aud. Orn. Biog. iii, 1835. 291; v, 1839, 508; Synop. 1839, 212; B. 

 Am. v, 1842, 138, pi. 305.— Cass, in Baird's B. N. Am. 1858, 751.— Baied, Cat. N.Am. B 

 1859, No. 559. -Coues, Key, 1872, 275; Check List, 1873, No. 474; 2d ed. 1882, No. 686;' 

 Birds N. W. 1874, 541.— Ridgw. Norn. N. A. B. 1881, No. 580; Man. N. Am. B. 1887, 142 — 

 A. O. U. Check List, 1886, No. 221. 



Fulica wilsoni Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii, 1824, 236. 



Fulica atra Wils. Am. Orn. ix, 1825, pi. 73, flg. 1 (nee Linn.). 



Hab. The whole of North America, Middle America, and West Indies; north to Green- 

 land and Alaska, south to Veragua and Trinidad. 



Sp. Chab. Adult: General color uniform slate-color or slaty plumbeous, the head and 

 neck and anterior central portion of the crissum black ; lateral and posterior portions of the 

 crissum, edge of wing, and tips of secondaries white. (In winter the belly suffused with 

 whitish.) Bill milk-white, more bluish terminally, each mandible with a spot of dark brown 

 near the end, bordered anteriorly with a more or less distinct bar of reddish chestnut; 

 frontal shield dark chestnut, or liver-brown, the culmen just in front of this tinged with 

 greenish yellow; iris bright crimson; legs bright yellowish green, the tibiae tinged behind 

 and above with orange-red; toes light bluish gray, tinged with yellowish green on scutellae 

 of basal phalanges. 2 Young: Similar, but lower parts more gray, and much suffused. 



1 A South American genus, Porphyriops Pucheean, belonging to the Gallinulinas, is 

 much like Gallinula, but has the lateral margin to the toes more decidedly developed the 

 gonys very short, and much ascending terminally, the culmen very straight and the front- 

 al shield small and very pointed. 



8 Fresh colors of an adult male killed at Wheatland, Indiana, April 15, 1881. 



