THE COMMON COOT. 205 



Mr. John Ferguson informs me that this bird remains 

 at Duns Castle Lake throughout the winter, a part of the 

 water being always kept free from ice for the benefit of 

 the Swans and Geese, which are fed regularly in hard 

 weather when the lake is frozen. He adds that in Decem- 

 ber 1886 and January 1887, when skating and curling 

 were going on at the lake every day for several weeks in 

 succession, the Coots were very tame, and that sometimes 

 as many as fifty or sixty were seen feeding with the 

 Swans at the edge of the ice. This bird leaves the smaller 

 inland waters and betakes itself to the sea in the beginning 

 of winter, returning again in March.^ 



The nest is large, and is strongly built of flags and 

 other water plants, being often placed in a bed of reeds. 

 The eggs, which are from seven to ten in number, are of 

 a stone colour, spotted over with dark-brown. 



The food of this bird consists of water insects, 

 worms, and slugs, with portions of various aquatic 

 plants. 



In some parts of the country the Coot is used for 

 the table. Yarrell, quoting from Colonel Hawker, says : 

 " They are generally sold for eighteenpence a couple ; 

 previously to that they are what is called cleaned. The 

 recipe for this is, after picking them, to take off all the 

 black down by means of powdered resin and boiling 

 water, and then to let them soak all night in cold spring 

 water ; by which they are made to look as white and as 

 delicate as a chicken, and to eat tolerably well ; but 

 without this process, the skin in roasting produces a sort 

 of oil with a fishy taste and smell, and if the skin be 



1 Mr. Hardy, writing under date the 7th of March 1860, notes that "Coots 

 returned to Townhead farm mill pond, where they breed and erect a high and 

 half-floating nest made of rushes and equi.setum. In the autumn a shepherd 

 encountered a Coot migrating by the wood border at North Cleugh to the Pease 

 Burn. He caught her, and she bit him severely." — MS. Notes. 



