452 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
‘This is the last of the Rallide which I have been 
able to include in this list: as I said before, this 
family seems to make a sort of link between the 
wading and swimming birds, especially as the 
present species is such an expert swimmer and 
diver: this link is still further closed up by the 
next family. 
Family Lopiprepips. 
The family of Lobipedide, at which I have now 
arrived, the last amongst the Waders, is a very 
small one, containing only one British species.* 
Common Coot, Fulica atra.. The tolerably well- 
known “ Bald Coot” is a common bird in most of 
our larger ponds, where it breeds and remains 
throughout the year, except in very hard frosts, 
when these ponds become frozen; it then leaves 
them either for ponds less liable to freeze or for the 
running brooks, and occasionally for the sea-coast. 
A pair or two generally come to my pond in the 
winter. Though generally ungainly birds on the 
land they seem at that time to take longish walks, 
as I have tracked their unmistakable foot-prints in 
— 
* Some systems, that of Meyer for instance, include the 
Phalaropes amongst the Lobipedide, on account of the 
somewhat similar structure of the feet. 
