THE COOT. 35 



previous black with hundreds of these birds, will be like a 

 glassy mirror : 



" When the blue breast of the dipping coot 

 Dives under, and all is mute." 



The expectant observer will be astonished at their non- 

 appearance ; but they have all made their way under water 

 to the nearest shelter, and after a while, when all is quiet, 

 comes their call-note from the reeds, and one by one out 

 they come, and the whole surface will again be teeming 

 with black life. 



That he is anything but a witless ass is proved by the 

 mode in which this bird prevents the attack of birds of 

 prey. In Dresser's " Birds of Europe," Lord Lilford com- 

 municates the following : " It (the coot) is very common 

 in winter on the lakes of Epirus, in which country I have 

 several times observed the singular manner in which a 

 flock of these birds defend themselves against the white- 

 tailed eagle. On the appearance over them of one of these 

 birds they collect in a dense body, and when the eagle 

 stoops at them they throw up a sheet of water with their 

 feet and completely baffle their enemy. In one instance, 

 on a small lake near Butrinto, they so drenched the eagle 

 that it was with difficulty he reached a tree on the shore not 

 more than a hundred yards from the spot where he attacked 

 them." These remarks corroborate what Sir Thomas 

 Browne, of Norwich, when writing of British birds about 

 1635, says: " Coots are in very great flocks on the 

 broad waters. Upon the appearance of a kite or buzzard 

 I have seen them unite from all parts of the shore in 

 strange numbers, when, if the kite stoop near them, they 

 will fling up and spread such a flash of water with their 

 wings, that they will endanger the kite, and so keep him off 

 again and again in open opposition." 



Coots feed chiefly on aquatic insects, worms, slugs, land 

 and water snails, and various water-plants- particularly 

 the submerged leaves of the pond weeds (Potamogeton) 

 and Ranunculus aquaticus. The river-keepers declare that 

 this bird takes the small trout and the ova. It will no 



