AlsD XEIGHBOritHOOD. 331 



130. COOT. 



Fxdica atra. 



This bird is more or less common and resident on 

 most of the larger ponds or lakes in Northampton- 

 shire with which I have any acquaintance, especially 

 at Deene Park, where I have occasionally seen at 

 least a hundred Coots on the banks of the lake as I 

 passed along the road that skirts the park fence. On 

 our river near Lilford a few Coots generally appear 

 in autumn, and occasionally a pair or two have 

 remained and bred. Being anxious to establish and 

 encoiu'age them, I many years ago procured some 

 fresh eggs of this species from Norfolk, and put them 

 into the nests of Waterhens ; the experiment was 

 attended with perfect success, and for several sub- 

 sequent years we always had two or three pairs of 

 Coots haunting and breeding within sight of the 

 house at Lilford ; but they gradually disappeared, 

 and till 1886 I heard of none about home in the 

 breeding-season for a long time past, and could not 

 discover that any of the few that made their appear- 

 ance in that year nested in our neighbourhood — in 

 fact I much fear that such conspicuous objects as the 

 Coot and its nest could hardly escape the disastrous 

 attentions of some of the occupants of the vast 

 number of pleasure boats with which our district has 

 of late years become infested. 



The Bald Coot, as this bird is often called, on 

 account of its bare white frontal shield, loves open 

 sheets of water, surrounded with reeds, and is not 

 often to be met with on the small ponds and streams 

 such as the Waterhen frequents. Its food appears 



