Coot. 427 
but little danger of their getting adrift.* When thus 
placed amongst the outlying reeds or rushes, growing 
half out of the water, the nest is rather conspicuous, and 
I have never found the eggs in any way covered ; indeed, 
under these circumstances, there would not be sufficient 
materials at hand to do so effectively. The bird dives 
quietly from the nest, on the first alarm, and, like the 
water-hen, remains submerged till all danger is passed. 
When placed on the shore with plenty of dried litter 
around, probably the coot may, at times, take the pre- 
caution of covering its eggs before leaving them, but 
my own experience on this point differs entirely from 
that of Bishop Stanley, who describes the coot as com- 
monly adopting this plan, whereas in no one instance 
have I seen it done. I have frequently found six and 
seven egos in one nest, which I imagine to be the 
usual complement, but occasionally as many as ten are 
found by the marshmen. It is probable, also, that at 
times two birds may have laid in the same nest. 
When, as is some times the case, not more than two 
or three are found, but those hard sat upon, the bird 
has most probably been robbed of her previous layings. 
The eggs vary much in size in different nests, and the 
smaller ones are supposed by the marshmen to belong to 
the youngest birds; I have occasionally seen a water- 
hen’s egg amongst them laid to the coots. William 
Hewitt, the keeper at Hoveton, many years back used 
to search the wet bottoms of the coots’ nests for me- 
dicinal leeches, which at that time were worth one 
shilling a-piece, but none have been found in those 
waters for some years. As many as three and four 
* Bewick gives an instance in which a coot’s nest, built on Sir 
William Middleton’s lake at Belsay, Northumberland, was loosened 
from its moorings by the wind, and floated here and there on the 
surface of the water. The hen bird, however, still continued to 
sit, and hatched off her young. 
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