124 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



Hab. — Temperate and tropical America from Canada to Brazil and Chili. 



Nest, a mass of Itroken, rotten reeds and rushes, with a slight hollow in the 

 centre; it is seldom much iifeove water level, and often afloat, but is fastened to 

 the sedges. 



Eggs, ten to twelve, brownish-butf, thickly spotted with reddish-lirown. 



This is a common summer resident, breeding in suitable places 

 throughout Southern Ontario. Near Hamilton it is quite common, a 

 few pairs generally spending the summer in the Waterdown creek, 

 and also in the Dundas marsh. Its retired haunts are seldom 

 invaded during the summer months, for the mosquitoes form a bar to 

 the intrusion of visitors, and its flesh not being in demand for the 

 table, it is not much disturbed. 



Southern Ontario seems to be the northern limit of its habitat. 

 It is not mentioned among the birds of Manitoba, neither have I 

 heard of it appearing elsewhere in the north. 



Like most of its class, it arrives in May and leaves in September. 



Subfamily FULICIN^. 

 Genus FULICA Linnaeus. • 

 FULICA AMERICANA Gmel. 



87. American Coot. (221) 



Dark slate, paler or grayish below, blackening on the head and neck, tinged 

 with olive on the back ; ciissum, whole edge of wing, and top of the secondaries 

 white ; bill, white or. flesh-colored, marked with reddish-black near the end ; 

 feet, dull olivaceous. Young: — Similar, paler and duller. Length, about 14; 

 wing, 7-S; tail, 2; bill, from the gape, l^-H; tarsus, about 2; middle toe and 

 claw, about 3. 



Hab. — North America, from (ilreenland and Alaska southwar<l to West 

 Indies and Central America. 



Nest, of vegetable rubbish from the marsh, often afloat and fastened to the 

 rushes like the Grebes, but sometimes on dry gi-ound back from the water. 



Eggs, ten to twelve, clear clay color, dotted minutely with dark Jarown. 



This species is very generally distributed in suitable places through- 

 out Ontario, and also in the North-West. It breeds abundantly at 

 St. Clair, but at Hamilton is only a migratory visitor in spring and 

 fall. They are hardy birds, often arriving in spring before the ice is 

 quite away, and again lingering late in the fall, as if unwilling to 

 depart. They are sometimes mistaken for ducks by amateur gunners, 

 and in this way a few lose their lives, but except in such cases they 



