BLACK BIRDS. 13 



surface of it, a quite small pond being frequently 

 selected. The Moorhen has a mellow, musical note — 

 ' Croog ! ' It flies rarely, unless to cover for safety, 

 and the flight is laboursome and performed with much 

 splashing. Moorhens, although they will nest in the 

 same places as Coots and other fresh-water birds, are 

 of a solitary habit, even in winter. 



COOT — 15 inches. A bird of a generally black appearance, 

 frequenting the same places as the Moorhen, and closely 

 resembling it in its ways, but at once distinguishable 

 from that bird by its light bill and the conspicuous 

 white bony plate on its forehead. It lacks the white 

 at the sides and beneath the tail. 



DABCHICK— 9^ inches ; dark brown above, whitish below; 

 chest cb.estiiut ; bill dark. Fref][nenting similar waters, 

 it goes less to land than the Moorhen, and when swim- 

 ming, with neck drawn in, looks like a tiny duck. On 

 land it drags itself along rather than walks. 



COOT. — Plate 7. Length, 15 inches. Slaty-gray 

 above, sooty-black below ; a bony plate on the fore- 

 head conspicuously white ; bill pinkish-white ; legs 

 greenish-gray ; a thin white bar across the wing. 

 Resident. 



Eggs. — 7-10, stone-colour, minutely spotted all 

 over with dark brown, with larger spots of the 

 same colour interspersed ; 2'0 x 1'5 inches (plate 122). 



Nest. — Of flags, sedges, reeds, and rushes, placed 

 among reeds or on a tuft of rushes about the margins 

 of lakes, ponds, and rivers. 



Distribution. — General. 



