104: ^IRD NAMES. [No. 29. 



at Tuckerton, BAY-COOT; at Pleasantville (Atlantic Co.), BLOS- 

 SOM-BILL and BLOSSOM-HEAD. 



Audubon speaks of its being known to " the gunners of Long 

 Island and New Jersey " as the BLACK SEA-DUCK, stating also 

 that in IMaine and Massachusetts it is " best known by the name 

 of BUTTER-BOAT-BILLED COOT." A shorter form of this latter 

 title, viz., BUTTERBOAT-BILL, is given by De Kay (Zoology of New 

 York, 1844), but I have never heard of these forms in actual use. 

 De Kay also credits the species with BOX COOT; and we read in 

 AVater Birds of North America, of its being known " to some " 

 in New England as HOLLOW-BILLED COOT (see No. 30). 



The females and young males are, by many, regarded as a 

 species distinct from the adult drakes ; the two former being 

 known on Buzzard's Bay, from New Bedford to Westport, by 

 the name PISHAUG, and venj generaUy along our coast as GRAY 

 COOT, and less frequently BROWN COOT. (Species No. 30 is also 

 popularly divided in like manner, while the females and }■ oung 

 of No. 28 are, as a rule, correctly placed; the white wing-mark 

 revealing the relationship.) This mistake is one very easily 

 made, so different in appearance from the old cocks are these 

 gray-brown birds ; a majority also of those that come to us in 

 the fall are young, therefore tamer, inclined to frequent the in- 

 lets, mouths of rivers, ponds, etc., and when shot are so much 

 easier to pick, and on the table so much more tender and 

 palatable. 



See note preceding No. 28, for name Booby, etc. 



A supposed " variety " of the species, called " Trowbridge's 

 Surf Duck," "Long-billed Surf Duck," etc., has been latterl}^ 

 eliminated; found to be, in other words, nothing more nor less 

 than this bird. 



