COMMON COOT. 173 



tributed throughout the Continent down to the shores of 

 the Mediterranean, where, owing to the arrival of migrants 

 from the north, it occurs in vast numbers in winter. In the 

 south of France, especially in Provence, it is known by the 

 name of Macreuse, elsewhere applied to the Scoter Duck, 

 and its flesh being allowed to be eaten in convents on jours 

 maigres, large battues were formerly organized in order to 

 obtain supplies. Parties for the purpose of sport still take 

 place annually, and more than a thousand Coots sometimes 

 fall in a single day. Similar bags have been made at the great 

 lake of Albufera near Valencia, in Spain, in which country 

 the Coot also breeds in some numbers in suitable localities, 

 especially in Andalucia ; but in Italy, the islands of the 

 Mediterranean and Greece, comparatively few remain to nest. 

 It occurs in Turkey, and along the Black Sea as far as the 

 foot of the Caucasus, and it appears to be resident in Asia 

 Minor and Palestine. Eastward it ranges across Persia and 

 Turkestan to Kashmir, where it breeds in small numbers, 

 and it visits Northern India, especially the lakes of Sind, 

 where it is found, according to Mr. Hume, in hundreds of 

 thousands during the cold season. In other parts of India 

 its distribution is somewhat irregular, but it was obtained 

 by Capt. R. Wardlaw-Ramsay in Burmah, and a form of 

 doubtful specific value occurs in Java. To the north of the 

 great Central Asian range it appears to be principally a 

 spring and summer visitant : it breeds in Manchuria, and 

 many parts of China, and a slightly larger race is a resident 

 in Japan. In Australia, a form with a somewhat slenderer 

 bill is met with. 



Returning to the west, our Coot is found in the Azores, 

 Madeira, and the Canaries ; it occurs upon the lakes and 

 rivers of North Africa, swarming in Lower Egypt in winter, 

 and ranges as far south as the Blue Nile. In Southern 

 Spain, however, and in Morocco, it meets with its near 

 congener, the Crested Coot (Fulica cristata), which has two 

 bright red caruncles on the frontal plate, and this species 

 replaces it throughout the greater part of Central and 

 Southern Africa. 



