DIRECTORY TO BIRDS OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 1 lO 



' ''" <^. COOTS. Fiilicidae. 



Differ from B chiefly in having the toes widely lobated, 

 and the frontal shield is lar^e. 



Fig. 135. 





1^1, C. a, 1. 

 a. Coots. Fiilica. 



Characters as above. ^ 



1. AMERICAN COOT, F. Americana. 16.00; bill. 1.30; 

 slaty-blue; head and neck, dusky; tips of secondaries (show- 

 ing in flight) and under tail coverts, white, the latter with a 

 black line in the center; bill, yellow, white at tip with a btind 

 in center and frontal Fig. 136. 



plate, brownish-red ; 

 iris, brown; legs, 

 greenish, fig. 136. 

 Young, duller with 

 the feathers more or 

 less tipped with 

 white. Downy 

 young, black. Breeds 

 chiefly in northern 

 U. S. and southern 

 Canada; common, oc- M, C, a, 1. 1-4. 



curring more rarely north to Greenland and Alaska : migrates 

 southward, (largely through the interior, but occurring in 

 greater or less numbers east to the Atlantic) to winter in the 

 Gulf States and southward through the West Indies, ocCtlT- 

 ring in immense, compact flocks at this season on frer^h and 

 brackish waters in Fla. ; comes north in May, when lesscoin- 

 iiion in the Atlantic States north of the C-arolinas. Divies 

 well but does not use the wings under water. Flight, direct 

 v^rith rapid wing-beats ; in rising from the water, swims rapid- 





