COOT 



COMMON COOT BALD COOT. 



PLATE CLXXXI. FIGURE II. 

 Fulica atra, LINNAEUS. 



THE nest of this well-known bird is a large compact 

 structure, built of dry flags, and though of rough work- 

 manship, very strong in its composition, so as to keep the 

 eggs dry, although in close proximity to water. It is built 

 by the edges of islands or the borders of lakes, ponds, and 

 rivers, and is generally placed among, and loosely attached 

 to, flags and reeds ; sometimes on a tuft of rushes, and 

 composed of the former plants ; the finer portions are 

 placed inwards. Mr. Hewitson says that the flags are 

 sometimes accumulated so much as to rise from half a 

 foot to a foot above the water, going down also to a depth 

 of from one foot and a half to two feet ; the width is about 

 a foot and a half, and the interior nearly flat. Since writing 

 the above, I have observed one placed on the water, as 

 indeed they not unfrequently are, and confined only in its 

 place by the reeds springing up around it. It was three or 

 four yards from the edge of a small pond, adjoining the 

 high-road between Fangfoss and Stamford Bridge. The 

 old bird moved a little way from it as I stopped, but did 

 not appear shy, as she doubtless would at another time. 



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