320 Sketches of Some ConinioR Birds. 



or "red-billed" mud-hens, with which they intimately as- 

 sociate. The coots can be studied to advantage only in 

 the marshes, though on the migrations they sometimes 

 stop to rest a few hours on the small prairie ponds and 

 streams; but like the other water-fowl, particularly the 

 ducks and geese, they are extremely vigilant, ever alert 

 and suspicious of danger, quickly taking wing at such 

 times to escape threatened harm. In their breeding 

 season they limit their movements to localities fiavorable 

 for nesting and rearing their young. The rank, dense 

 growth of flags and other aquatic grasses, common to the 

 swamp-lakes such as we have described, furnishes the 

 coots and associated species suitable shelter for themselves 

 and their broods, and in the abundance of minute aquatic 

 life, both animal and vegetable, they find a convenient 

 and well- stocked larder. 



The coots are found throughout the whole of North 

 America, and in tropical America to northern South 

 America, the Bermudas, and West Indies. The birds 

 which spend the summer in the northern and middle 

 portions of their habitat migrate toward the south in the 

 fall, wintering in the southern States and in the lower 

 portions of their extensive range. They are said to be 

 less common along the Atlantic coast above the southern 

 States, but are found locally everywhere in the limits de- 

 scribed. Their chief breeding grounds are in the southern 

 British Provinces and northern United States. They are 

 comparatively hardy, and make their appearance soon 

 after the breaking of winter, following the heavy mi- 

 grations of other water-fowl, their feebler powers of sus- 

 tained flight causing them to journey more slowly than 

 most of the ducks, which are well known to be strong 

 flyers. 



The first coots are generally seen when the regular 

 migration of the water-fowl is at its height. They appear 

 in the overflowed regions near their summer home soon 

 after the middle of March, their numbers being steadily 

 increased until the middle of April. Their fondness for 

 companionship manifests itself during the migration and 

 after they reach the end of their journey ; for the coots on 

 any particular body of water mostly feed together and 



