82 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 
Adult male.—General color above slate-gray, lower back, rump, upper 
tail-coverts, and tail blackish; he neck, chin, and throat black; under 
side of body pale slate or smoke-gray; crissum black; edge of wing and 
of first primary white; under wing-coverts and axillars smoke-gray. 
“<Bill very pale lavender, with a pinkish tinge; frontal shield ivory- 
white; tarsi and feet pearly gray, with a greenish tinge on the sides of 
the tarsus; garter orange-yellow; iris dark brown’ (R. B. S., MS). 
Length, 368; culmen from base of shield, 34; wing, 218; tail, 56; tarsus, 
33; middle toe and claw, 78.” (Sharpe.) 
Adult female.—Similar to the male. In a specimen from Laguna de 
Bay, Luzon, December 29, 1901, the following colors were noted: Iris 
dull red; frontal shield and bill white, tip pale horn-brown; feet slate; 
legs slate with a wash of pale green on middle of tarsi; garter-ring next 
to feathers dull orange. Wing, 209; tail, 61; culmen including frontal 
shield, 47; bill from nostril, 15; bill from gape, 32; tarsus, 59; middle 
toe with claw, 87. 
“Young.—Much browner than the adult, feathers of head dusky black- 
ish edged with white; lores, eyebrows, and sides of face white; under 
surface of body ashy whitish, browner on the flanks.” (Sharpe.) 
The black coot is fairly abundant on the Laguna de Bay, Luzon, and 
doubtless occurs in Mindanao. This bird frequents lakes and ponds 
and is seldom seen on land. 
Order COLYMBIFORMES. 
GREBES. 
Water birds with tarsus extremely flattened and legs set far back on 
body; neck long; plumage dense; tail-feathers very short and soft; toes 
lobed; toes and nails very broad and flat; hind toe small and elevated. 
Eggs with a white chalky surface; nest a mass of reeds near the water 
often floating on the water. 
Family COLYMBIDZ. 
Characters same as those given for the Order. 
Genus TACHYBAPTUS. Reichenbach, 1849.* 
Characters same as those given for the Family. 
* The order Colymbiformes as used here is equivalent to order VIII Podicipedi- 
diformes of Sharpe’s Hand-List and not order IX Colymbiformes of that work. 
Tachybaptus Reichenbach is to be used for the genus or subgenus Podiceps Latham. 
Cf. Stone, Awk (1907), 24, 190; Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. (1907), 24, 24. 
