862 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — PALUDICOLjE — RA LLI. 



having the forehead singularly carunculate ; in another (F. cristata) the shield is corrugated 



into a crest ; the others more or less closely reseinhle ours. 



FU'LICA. (Lat. fulica, or fulix, a coot, from the sooty color; fidigo, soot.) Character as 



above. Tarsi shorter than middle toe, stout, very broadly scutellate. Nostrils linear, in a 



broad fossa, toward middle of 

 bill. Tibiae bare below. Wings 

 moderate, rounded, the 2d and 

 3d quills usually longest. Tail 

 very short, 12-feathered. Plu- 

 mage dark slaty color; sexes 

 alike. 



F. america'na. (Figs. 604, 

 005.) American Coot. Wa- 

 ter-hen. Mud-hen. Marsh- 

 hen. Moor-hen. Meadow- 

 hen. Pond-hen. Mud-coot. 

 White-billed Coot or Mud- 

 iiEN. Ivory - billed Coot. 

 White-bill. Hen-bill. 

 Crow-bill. 

 Pond - crow. 



Fig. C04. — American Coot, nat. size. (L. A. Fueites.) 



Sea-crow. 

 Crow - duck. 

 Flusterer. 



Blue Peter. 



Splatterer. Shuffler. Pelick. Pull-doo (Poule d'eau). Adult $ 9 : Dark 

 slate-color, paler or grayish below, blackening on head and neck, tinged with olive on the back. 

 Crissum, whole edge of wing, and tips of secondaries, 

 white. Quills dusky; outer edge of 1st primary 

 white. Tail blackish. Bill white or flesh-color, 

 marked with reddish-black near end and at base of 

 frontal plate; feet dull olivaceous or livid yellowish- 

 green; iris carmine ; claws black. Young similar, 

 paler and duller, with much white on under parts; 

 the shield undeveloped; the bill obscured with a 

 dingy shade, and without the reddisli spots. Length 

 14.00-16.00; extent 23.00-27.00; wing 7.00-8.00; 

 tail 2.00; bill from gape 1.25-1.50; tarsus about 

 2.00 ; middle toe and claw about 3.00. The frontal 

 plate is much smaller in this than in some other 

 species, in which it covers all the forehead ; it is said 

 to swell in the breeding season after a shrunken win- 

 ter state. Entire temperate North America, even to 

 Alaska and sometimes Greenland ; IMexico, Central 

 America, and West Indies ; abundant; breeds through- 

 out its range; migratory northerly ; resident in the 

 South. Inhabits during the breeding season, and 

 mostly at other times, reedy sloughs, pools, and slug- 

 gish streams, seeking safety in concealment rather 

 than by flight. Nesting most like that of Grebes ; 

 a hollowed heap of bits of dead reeds, just out of the 

 water, sometimes "floating" in the sense that the mass of broken-down reeds upon which it 

 rests lies on the water, but sometimes on dry ground a little away from water. Eggs about a 



Fig. G05. — American Coot, riglit foot. 



Fuertes.) 



(L. A. 



