DESCRIPTION, DISTRIBUTION, HABITS 



Red-knobbed Coot {Fulica cristata). (Vol. II., p. 263.) 



Description. — Dark bluish-black, becoming darker on the 

 under tail coverts, head, and neck. Ashy on the abdomen. 

 Eyes red. Beak light blue. Two fleshy knobs on the fore- 

 head crimson, sometimes shading to brownish-red. Legs 

 blackish-green. 



Length., averages 16.0 ; tail, 2.0 ; wing, 8.0. 

 Female resembles the male in size and colour. 

 The immature bird is not so dark as the adult. Some of the 

 feathers are edged with white on the head and neck. 



Distribution. — This coot is found all over South Africa 

 where there is surface water such as rivers, ponds, and marshes. 

 Beyond our limits it extends up the west side of Africa to the 

 Mediterranean, and crosses to Spain and to Madagascar. 



Habits. — The red-knobbed coot is thoroughly aquatic and 

 inhabits rivers, lakes, ponds, and marshes. Its diet consists 

 of water plants, their seeds, and a variety of insects, including 

 fresh water snails, which are the hosts of the liver fluke in 

 sheep and bilharzia in man. The coot is an excellent flier, 

 swimmer, and diver. The nest is a structure of rushes, reeds, 

 etc., woven together. The nest is sometimes placed in a 

 dense mass of reeds or rushes at the side of the water, or on 

 little hillocks in the water. It is, however, usually found 

 floating in the shallow water in the reed brakes or masses of 

 rushes. The eggs vary from 5 to 7 in a clutch. They are of 

 a dirty yellowish-white colour, spotted and blotched with 

 blackish-brown. Size, 2.23 to 2.05 by 1.50 to 1.45. 



The chicks take to the water and follow the mother 

 immediately after birth in the same way as ducklings. 



Black Stork {Ciconia nigra). (Vol. II., p. 268.) 



Description. — Male : above, general colour dusky-brown 

 verging to black, glossed with metallic-green and copper, the 

 former being predominant round the neck and on the mantle, 

 the latter on the sides of the face and upper throat. Below, 



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