COMMON COOT. 39 



Hewitson says, that " he has had opportunities of examining 

 many of their nests. They are large, and apparently clumsy 

 at first sight, but are amazingly strong and compact ; they 

 are sometimes built on a tuft of rushes, but more commonly 

 amongst reeds ; some are supported by those that lie prostrate 

 on the water, Avhilst others have their foundations at its bot- 

 tom, and are raised till they become from six to twelve inches 

 above its surface, sometimes in a depth of one and a half or 

 two feet. So firm are some of them, that, whilst up to the 

 hnees in water, they afforded me a seat sufficiently strong to 

 support my weight. They are composed of flags and broken 

 reeds, finer towards the inside, and contain from seven to ten 

 eggs." These are stone colour, speckled over with nutmeg- 

 brown, two inches one line in length by one inch six lines in 

 breadth. Bewick mentions that a Bald Coot built her nest 

 in Sir W. Middleton's lake, at Belsay, Northumberland, 

 among the rushes, which were afterwards loosened by the 

 wind, and, of course, the nest was driven about, and floated 

 upon the surface of the water, in every direction ; notwith- 

 standing which, the female continued to sit as usual, and 

 brought out her young upon her moveable habitation. Some 

 broods appear towards the end of May, others in June. The 

 young quit the nest soon after they are hatched, and leave it 

 entirely after three or four days, to follow their parents, who 

 are very careful of them. 



Sir Thomas Browne of Norwich, when writing of British 

 Birds about 1635, says, " Coots are in very great flocks on 

 the broad waters. Upon the appearance of a Kite or Buz- 

 zard, I have seen them unite from all parts of the shore in 

 strange numbers ; when, if the Kite stoop near them, they 

 will fling up, and spread such a flash of Avater with their 

 wings, that they will endanger the Kite, and so keep him off 

 again and again in open opposition ; " and this habit they 

 practise to the present time to defend themselves or their 



