COOT. 59 



one placed on the water, as indeed they not unfre- 

 quently are, and confined only in its place by the 

 reeds spring-ing 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. One of them appears to remain on the 

 site of the nest, while the other brings her articles 

 with which to compose it. 



Bishop Stanley writes thus on the subject of this 

 part of the natural history of these birds: 'They, too, 

 build a simple rushy nest, but with this difference, 

 that instead of seeking to raise it above the water, 

 they seem to prefer it floating upon the very surface, 

 where, of course, it is exposed to the double danger 

 of being carried hither and thither according as the 

 wind blows, or if interwoven with reeds or rushes close 

 to the water, of being covered, should the waters be 

 raised by floods. But the Coot is apparently well aware 

 of these possibilities, and accordingly guards against 

 them, preventing the nests being carried away, by 

 ingeniously fastening the materials of which they are 

 made, to the rushes or osiers near them; but at the 

 same time, these fastenings are of such a nature, as 

 to allow of the nests rising with the water, so that 

 no ordinary flood would expose them to the danger 

 of immersion. The Coot, like the Water-Hen, covers 

 her nest, and, if not so effectually, yet with a most 

 extraordinary rapidity. We have repeatedly watched 

 a Coot quietly sitting on her nest; if the boat ap- 

 proaches, she rises, and immediately begins pecking 

 away right and left, which she continues to do until 

 the enemy is so near that she is compelled to decamp 



