356 BULLETIN 135^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



FULICA ATRA Linnaeus 

 EUROPEAN COOT 



HABITS 



Contributed by Charles Wendell Townsend 



The European coot is accidental in Greenland. It closely resembles 

 the American coot, from which it differs in being slightly larger, in 

 having the frontal shield white, and in lacking the white on the cris- 

 sum. From a study of the accounts of its habits by P^uropean orni- 

 thologists, it is evident that in these respects it also closely resembles 

 our bird. 



Nesting. — Saunders (1889) says "the nests are strong and compact 

 structures of dry flags, and are usually raised from 6 to 12 inches 

 above the water on foundations of reeds or tufts of rushes, some 

 of them being so firm as to support the weight of a man seated." 



Dresser (1871) quotes Stevenson as follows: 



The outside of this ingeniously formed basket usually consists of dried flags, 

 reeds, and other withered plants; but I have occasionally known young reeds and 

 rushes used in part, when the contrast of the fresh green has had a very pretty 

 effect. The interior is lined with rather finer substances, chiefly with portions 

 of the dead leaves of the reed. Though not infrequenty placed in dry situations, 

 on the sedgy bank of an island, or the rushy margin of a pond or lake, I have 

 more commonly found them on the broads, built over the water amongst the 

 reed stems, in shallow spots resting on the weeds at the bottom, in others well 

 raised over the surface, but so fastened to the reeds themselves as to rise with 

 the tide, though with but little danger of getting adrift. 



Cases have been reported where the birds continued to incubate 

 after the nests had been torn from their moorings by storms. 



Eggs. — [Author's note: The eggs of the European bird are similar 

 in every way to those of our American coot. According to Witherby's 

 Handbook (1920), the usual numbers are from "6 to 9, occasionally 

 up to 13, while still larger numbers, up to 1 7 and 22, have been recorded, 

 probably by two females." 



The measm-ements of 38 eggs average 53.6 by 37.1 millimeters; the 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 57.9 by 36.6, 53.6 by 39.3, 

 50.1 by 36.3, and 51.9 by 35.7 miUimeters.] 



Young. — The incubation period, according to Evans (1891), is from 

 21 to 22 days. Both parents incubate and the young are able to 

 leave the nest and follow their parents soon after they are hatched. 



Plumages. — [Author's note: The downy young, the sequence of 

 plumages to matm-ity, and the seasonal molts of adults are apparently 

 similar to those of the American coot, to whicli it is very closely 

 related.] 



Food. — The food of the European coot consists of aquatic insects, 

 molluscs, slugs, worms and small fish, seeds, buds, and the tender 



