LOBIPEDID®. 453 
the snow for a considerable distance. They in- 
variably leave me before the breeding-season is much 
advanced, partly I think because there is not suffi- 
cient swampy rushy accommodation, and partly 
because they are bullied by the Moorhens, who 
generally have the best of a battle with them, in 
spite of the superior weight and size of the Coot. 
The nest is usually placed amongst flags and 
rushes growing in the water; sometimes it is built 
on a tuft of rushes or coarse grass above the water, 
and sometimes its foundation is actually placed in 
the bottom in water quite a foot deep, and a structure 
of reeds, rushes and flags is raised till it reaches 
quite a foot above the water: the materials of this 
column are reeds cut up to the required length and 
laid crosswise on one another over a common centre 
with great regularity, and the lining is a mass of 
cut-up reed-blades.* Bewick mentions an instance 
of a nest which was loosened by the wind and floated 
about upon the surface of the water in every direc- 
tion, notwithstanding which the female continued to 
sit as usual and brought out her young. 
The food of the Coot consists, according to 
Yarrell, of small fish, aquatic insects and vegetable 
matter. Meyer, however, says that neither fish nor 
frogs have been found in the stomach of the Coot, 
but corn of several kinds. In my own pond I have 
* ‘ Zoologist’ for 1867 (Second Series, p. 603). 
