612 THE AMERICAN COOT. 
General Range.—North America from Greenland and Alaska southward to 
the West Indies and Veragua. 
Range in Washington.—Common summer resident and migrant both sides 
of the Cascade Mountains; sparingly resident in winter on Puget Sound. 
Authorities.—| Lewis and Clark, Hist. Ex. (1814) Ed. Biddle: Coues. Vol. 
II. p. 194.] Cooper and Suckley, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. 1860, p. 247. T. C&S. 
Rh, D'. Kb. Kk. J. B. E. 
Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. P'. B. E. 
WHEN a canvas canoe propelled by a double-bladed paddle grows big 
upon the horizon and then brushes noisily against the weedy outpost of some 
tule swamp, an ominous hush falls over the scene, a silence broken only by 
the rustling of the arum tops. You saw birds from the distance, but every 
man Jack of them has fled. The reeds will tell no tales. Presently a Grebe 
relieves the tension by snorting—that is the word—then dives suddenly to 
quench his ill-timed mirth; next a leaden figure steals from behind a distant 
clump of reeds and glances this way and that apprehensively. It is only a man 
ioe Fuuet 
eae bog 
AYRE ME 
MID REEDY HAUNTS OF COOT AND HERN 
