172 RALLID^E. 



the coast, T^iiere extensive mud-flats are laid bare at each 

 retiring tide, preferring, however, open waters, and does not, 

 except in the breeding-season, so much seek the sheltered 

 reed-grown situations frequented by the Moor-hen ; the 

 extreme watchfulness of the Coot enabling it to avoid 

 danger. 



Owing to successive drainage of its breeding haunts in 

 this country, Coots are gradually diminishing in number, 

 and of late years the S2)ecies has become scarcer and 

 more localized in many of our English counties. On 

 the other hand, upon the Nene, in Northamptonshire, Lord 

 Lilford says that it has become much more abundant. The 

 Norfolk broads, Southampton Water, Poole, and other 

 parts of Dorsetshire, and Slapton Ley, in Devonshire, are 

 places where this species is still plentiful ; although the 

 days have passed when a fen -man, in answer to Mr. Lub- 

 bock's question as to the number of Coots visible on Hick- 

 ling Broad, could estimate them at " about an acre and a 

 half"; or a shoal reaching two miles in length by half a 

 mile across, be seen upon the Manningtree river in Essex.* 

 Large numbers are still, however, killed annually at the 

 battues, especially on some of the "broads," and at Slapton 

 Ley. As a rule the Coot is resident, but in the colder dis- 

 tricts, when the inland lakes and streams are closed by the 

 frost, it migrates partially, and with reluctance (generally 

 in the evening), to the salt water. This takes place more 

 particularly in the northern and north-eastern districts, but 

 in the milder west it remains throughout the winter, even in 

 the Hebrides and the Orkneys ; occasionally visiting Shet- 

 land at that season. In Ireland it is permanently resident, 

 and generally distributed where the localities are suitable. 



A very rare straggler as far as the south-west of Iceland, 

 the Coot is a tolerably regular visitor to the Fseroes. On 

 the coast of Norway, which is warmed by the Gulf Stream, 

 it has been known to occur as far as 70° N. lat. , and it 

 breeds in the southern districts of that country, and of 

 Sweden. South and east of the Baltic it is generally dis- 



* Stevenson's B. of Norfolk, ii. p. 429. 



