BIRDS FOUND IN BAYOUS AND MARSHES 107 
221. AMERICAN COOT. — Fulica americana. 
(Common names: Mud-hen; Blue Peter.) 
Famity: The Rails, Gallinules, and Coots. 
Length: 15.25. 
Adults: Dark bluish slate, nearly black on head and neck ; under parts 
paler ; edge of wing white; bill white; frontal plate, and spots on 
bill near end, brown ; legs and feet greenish ; toes with scalloped flaps. 
Downy Young: Upper parts rusty black ; under parts white; head and 
neck with orange-colored hair-like feathers, and upper parts with pale 
yellow hair-like feathers among the down ; bill red, tipped with black. 
Geographical Distribution: North America. 
Breeding Range: Breeds locally through the United States, British 
Columbia, and Canada. 
Breeding Season: April, May, and June. 
Nest: Of grass and reeds ; among the flags or tall marsh grass. 
Eggs: 8 to 16; cream-colored, speckled with dark chocolate. Size 
1.89 X 1.42. 
ALTHOUGH so closely resembling the Florida gallinule 
in appearance, the Coots may be easily distinguished 
from them by their white bills. They are much more 
social and are better swimmers than the gallinules, 
gathering in companies morning and evening in the 
shallow water at the edge of a marsh, to feed upon the 
larvee of water insects and small crustaceans, which they 
obtain by diving. They like best, however, to pick up 
their food from the slime at the border of a mud flat 
or low marshy place, and here they take their newly 
hatched bantlings. The young are covered with down 
of a rusty black color above and white beneath, with 
pale yellow hair-like feathers sprinkled through it. Their 
bills, unlike those of the parents, are red. They some- 
times stray near a farmyard and may be picked up easily, 
as they seem stupefied with fear. 
