94 WESTERN SERIES OF READERS. 



Web-footed birds cannot 

 run rapidly; they "just 

 waddle," as you know well 

 enough by watching the 

 ducks in your yard. But the 

 mud-hen runs like a partridge, 

 and she takes to her legs in 

 preference to flying or swimming, COOT, OR MUD-HEN. 

 if you surprise her in the marshes, where she 

 loves to spend her time. The marsh is her 

 home, her children's nursery, her "native land." 



On our coast, the coot nests in April and May. 

 The nests are usually floating rafts in the reeds 

 or on the water's edge. 



Sometimes large settlements of coots take up a 

 low, boggy marsh and rear their families. The 

 bottom of the nest is of reeds and sticks, which 

 mother coot breaks with her beak and lays criss- 

 cross. The platform or bottom of the raft-nest is 

 strong and thick. As the work goes on, the nest 

 is hollowed into shape, and the reeds and grasses 

 are woven snugly together. Sometimes a nest is 

 placed in the protection of reeds or willow-stems, 

 so that it must remain in one place, like any 

 bird's nest. Sometimes it is placed on the water 

 and moored or fastened to long reeds or tules 

 bent over. In this case the young coots are born 



