152 MEMOIRS or THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



55. Fulica americana Gmel. 

 American Coot. Coot. Meadow-hen. Mud-hen. 



Transient visitoi', of rare or irregular occurrence in spring, not uncommon in autumn. 



SEASONAL occurrence. 



April 1 S, 1 8go, one seen, Fresh Pond Marshes, B. Torrey. 

 April 27, 1892, a pair seen. East Lexington, W. Faxon. 



August 16, 1S95, one taken by a gunner, Lower Mystic Pond, Jidc W. Faxon. 



September 15 — October 25. 

 December 20, 1903, one seen. Fresh Pond, H. Bowditch. 



Coots occurred very commonly in the Cambridge Region twenty or 

 thirty years ago. I have seen as many as tliirty or forty in the course of a 

 single autumn, meeting with most of them in the thicket-encircled pools of the 

 Brickyard Swamp and the shallow, reedy coves of Fresh Pond. Muskrat Pond 

 at the foot of Vassal! Lane was another of their favorite resoi^ts, and they were 

 wont to appear with some regularity in the reservoir at Great Meadow, before 

 its waters were drained. Most of these once favored haunts have long since 

 ceased to exist or have become so changed as no longer to attract the Coots, 

 which, however, continue to reappear, although in greatly diminished numbers, 

 about Spy and the Mystic Ponds, the Glacialis, and certain small, nameless 

 pools scattered throughout what remain of the Fresh Pond Swamps, especially 

 those in the neighborhood of Pout Pond. As the birds are ordinarily very tame, 

 they fall an easy prey to even the most inexperienced gunners, and in the 

 earlier days many were killed every season. 



During the past twelve or fifteen years only a few Coots have been seen in 

 Fresh Pond. In the late autumn of 1903, however, its waters were enlivened, 

 for upwards of six weeks, by the almost constant presence of one or more birds. 

 Two were noted on November 4, four on the 9th and iith, five on the i6th, 

 seven on the i8th, 19th, 226, 23d, 25th, and 27th, and six on the 30th. The 

 pond froze over on the night of November 30, leaving, however, on the western 

 side, a strip of open water which was frequented by a single Coot on December 

 6, 8, 9, 10, II, 15, 19, and 20, and by two birds on December 16, 17, and 18. 

 On Novernber 30 I visited the pond in the afternoon when six Coots were 

 feeding together close inshore, in company with a female Canvas-back and two 

 Ring-necked Ducks. The Coots were diving in water several feet in depth, and 



