140 THE BIRDS OF OXFOEDSHIRE. 



THE COOT. I |\] 



Fulica otra. 



The Coot is a resident, breeding-, among other places, in 

 abundance on Clattercote Reservoir, and the lake at Blenheim; 

 a few pairs also breed on a piece of water near the Great 

 Western Railway Station at Oxford, and Mr. Warner was 

 informed that it did so on the Isis in the neighbourhood of 

 Stanton Harcourt (in lit.). 



The Coot builds a bulky nest, always at a little distance 

 from the bank, often quite floating and merely moored to the 

 rushes and water-plants, and constantly adds to the stnicture 

 during the progress of laying and incubation. The prettiest 

 nest I have examined was moored in water about two and 

 a half feet deep, and was composed externally, almost exclu- 

 sively, of the fresh flowering plants of Nasturtium amphit)inm, 

 together with a few of Bammcuhs sceleratus ; more fre- 

 quently it is composed of dead flags and reeds. Two broods 

 are probably reared in the season ; I have seen eggs as early 

 as the 15th INIay, while Mr. A. B. R. Battye and I, in the 

 same year, found three fresh eggs on the 7 th July, at which 

 date half-growTi young were to be seen on the water. 



I have counted as many as eighty -four Coots on the open 

 water at Clattercote in September, but their numbers are 

 always greatly reduced by the following spring, especially 

 after a severe winter, when, the water being frozen, the Coots 

 migrate, or wander away down the streams, and get killed. 

 One such frozen-out bird was captured in a garden in Banbury, 

 in January, 1886, and came into my possession. On the 

 Thames about Henley, it is seldom that even a stray Coot 

 appears (A. H. Cocks in lit.) ; but they are common in winter 

 and early spring on the upper Isis about Newbridge (W. H. 

 Warner in lit.). 



Contrary to the opinion sometimes expressed, Coots are per- 

 fectly at home on dry land, and in the early morning may be 



