COOL 103 
Latin Fulica (in polite French, Foulque) is probably allied to fuligo, 
and has reference to the bird’s dark colour. The Coot breeds 
abundantly in many of the larger inland waters of the northern 
parts of the Old World, in winter commonly resorting, and often 
in great numbers, to the mouth of rivers or shallow bays of the 
sea, where it becomes a general object of pursuit by gunners 
whether for sport or gain. At other times of the year it is 
comparatively unmolested, and being very prolific its abundance is 
easily understood. The nest is a large mass of flags, reeds, or 
sedge, piled together among rushes in the water or on the margin, 
and not unfrequently contains as many as ten eggs. The young, 
when first hatched, are beautiful little creatures, clothed in jet- 
black down, with their heads of a bright orange-scarlet, varied with 
purplish-blue. Ths brilliant colouring is soon lost, and they begin 
to assume the almost uniform sooty-black plumage which is worn 
for the rest of their life; but a characteristic of the adult is a bare 
patch or callosity on the 
forehead, which being 
nearly white gives rise 
to the epithet “bald” 
often prefixed to the J 
bird’s name. The Coot Coor. (After Swainson.) 
is about 18 inches in length, and will sometimes weigh over 
2 lb. Though its wings appear to be short in proportion to its 
size, and it seems to rise with difficulty from the water, it is 
capable of long-sustained and rather rapid flight, which is performed 
with the legs stretched out behind the stumpy tail. It swims 
buoyantly, and looks a much larger bird in the water than it really 
is. It dives with ease, and when wounded is said frequently to 
clutch the weeds at the bottom with a grasp so firm as not even to 
be loosened ‘by death. It does not often come on dry land, but 
when there, marches leisurely and not without a certain degree of 
grace. The feet of the Coot are very remarkable, the toes being 
fringed by a lobed membrane, which must be of consider ‘able assist- 
ance in swimming as well as in walking over the ooze—acting as 
they do like mud-boards. 
In England the sport of Coot-shooting is pursued to some extent 
on the broads and back-waters of the eastern counties, and in 
Southampton Water, Christchurch Bay, and at Slapton Lay, and is 
often conducted battue-fashion by a number of guns. But even in 
these cases the numbers killed in a day seldom reach more than a 
few hundreds, and come very short of those that fall in the officially- 
authority for stating, never wrote it), of the “chasse aux Macreuses” to the 
Scoter instead of the Coot. 
1 Hence also we have Fulizx or Fuligula applied to a Duck of dingy appear- 
ance, and thus forming another parallel case. 
