THE AMERICAN COOT. 613 
in a boat—perhaps—she did want to visit that snail-bed before the sun got too 
high. So she advances, not without many misgiving hitches of the head, 
across an intervening stretch of bare water, and disappears behind a screen of 
reeds. ‘The passage successfully accomplished, another Mud Hen and another 
ventures forth, the last one sniffing scornfully over the alleged danger. Con- 
fidence restored, the invaded precincts begin to re-echo to their wonted sounds 
of life, splashing and noise of pursuit, and mellow notes of several sorts. Only 
sit quiet and your stranger presence will soon be accepted as matter of course. 
Where unmolested, Mud Hens fill about as large a place in the economy 
of a well-conducted swamp as do chickens in a barnyard. Especially in the 
breeding season, the sound of their gulping call, pulque pulque pulque pulque, 
is the prevailing note of the swamp. These notes are rendered with the head 
close to the water, and seem to afford a prodigious relief to the bird’s feelings. 
The Coot, on fatigue duty, is a very prosy-looking fowl, for the bird ordi- 
narily sits half submerged, with lowered wings and tail both sloping into and 
under the water; but the Coot on dress parade is a very different-looking fel- 
low, albeit his uniform is the same. When the ladies are looking, he sits high 
in the water; the wing-tips are pointed obliquely upward; the tail is held ver- 
tically or tilted forward; and two white patches of feathers, one on each side 
of the tail, are flashed into view and carried prominently. 
Courtship is largely a matter of pursuit. In this both pursuer and pur- 
sued rise, or only half rise, from the water, with much floundering and 
splashing. And they proceed only a rod or two when both fall back exhausted, 
the female usually well in advance. This is mere gallantry on the part of the 
male, and exaggerated pretense on the part of both. When the male is in 
earnest, the pursuit is carried on under water as well as above it. Much time 
is spent by enamored couples in simply gazing into each other’s eyes. A pair 
will face each other, beak to beak, with necks stretched out full length upon 
the water, and paddle about for minutes together in fascinated circles. The 
hinder parts, meanwhile, are carried high like those of a swan. This vis-a-vis 
pose is also a menace on the part of rivals, and is the inevitable preliminary of 
any cock fight. In this the birds appear to depend upon nail more than upon 
tooth, for they lean back upon the water, bracing with their wings, behind, 
and kick at each other most absurdly. After such an episode, which the 
female, as likely as not, has interrupted, all the interested parties float about 
with ruffled feathers and outstretched heads laid low, each apparently in a 
sort of trance of self-satisfaction. 
From a somewhat careful study of these birds during the breeding sea- 
son, I am inclined to think them polygamous. This is evidenced by the readi- 
ness with which other cocks are disposed to butt in upon any chase in progress, 
quite after the manner of the domestic fowl. 
Coots are highly gregarious at all times. Not only do they nest in loose 
