82 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



Adult male. General color above slate-gray, lower back, rump, upper 

 tail-coverts, and tail blackish; head, neck, chin, and throat black; under 

 side of body pale slate or smoke-gray; crissum black; edge of wing and 

 of first primary white; under wing-coverts and axillars smoke-gray. 

 "'Bill very pale lavender, with a pinkish tinge; frontal shield ivory- 

 white; tarsi and feet pearly gray, with a greenish tinge on the sides of 

 the tarsus; garter orange-yellow; iris dark brown' (R. B. S., MS). 

 Length, 368; culmen from base of shield, 34; wing, 218; tail, 56; tarsus, 

 33 ; middle toe and claw, 78." (Sharpe.) 



Adult female. Similar to the male. In a specimen from Laguna de 

 Bay, Luzon, December 29, 1901, the following colors were noted: Iris 

 dull red; frontal shield and bill white, tip pale horn-brown; feet slate; 

 legs slate with a wash of pale green on middle of tarsi ; garter-ring next 

 to feathers dull orange. Wing, 209 ; tail, 61 ; culmen including frontal 

 shield, 47; bill from nostril, 15; bill from gape, 32; tarsus, 59; middle 

 toe with claw, 87. 



"Young. Much browner than the adult, feathers of head dusky black- 

 ish edged with white; lores, eyebrows, and sides of face white; under 

 surface of body ashy whitish, browner on the flanks." (Sharpe.) 



The black coot is fairly abundant on the Laguna de Bay, Luzon, and 

 doubtless occurs in Mindanao. This bird , frequents lakes and ponds 

 and is seldom seen on land. 



Order COLYMBIFORMES. 



GREBES. 



Water birds witli tarsus extremely flattened and legs set far back on 

 body; neck long; plumage dense; tail-feathers very short and soft; toes 

 lobed; toes and nails very broad and fla.t; hind toe small and elevated. 

 Eggs with a white chalky surface; nest a mass of reeds near the water 

 often floating on the water. 



Family COLYMBID^. 

 Characters same as those given for the Order. 



Genus TACHYBAPTUS Beichenbach, 1849.* 



Characters same as those given for the Family. 



* The order Colymbiformes as used here is equivalent to order VIII Podicipedi- 

 difbrmes of Sharpe's Hand-List and not order IX Colymbiformes of that work. 

 Tachybaptus Reichenbach is to be used for the genus or subgenus Podiceps Latham. 

 Cf. Stone, Auk (1907), 24, 190; Allen, Bull. Am. J/MS. A"af. Hist. (1907), 24, 24. 



