THE AMERICAN COOT. 95 



in a house-boat. " When the wind blows, the 

 cradle will rock," and rise and fall, with mother 

 coot sitting calmly on her treasure. Once a nest 

 was seen to break from its moorings and float off 

 with mother mud-hen still on it. It was. as if she 

 had no other thought than to stay with her chil- 

 dren. And of children she has aplenty! She lays 

 as many eggs as your own biddy hen lays in the 

 hay-mow. The eggs are shaped like hen's eggs, 

 but are muddy white, dotted or splashed with 

 brown. As soon as the young are hatched, they 

 are ready for a swim, and away they go with the 

 mother, leaving the house-boat to take care of 

 itself, and to tell the boys exactly where to find 

 next year's coots. The young are very beautiful 

 in their thick coats of black down penciled with 

 bright orange. Their beaks are red, tipped with 

 black. They soon learn to hunt on their own ac- 

 count for slugs and snails, and to catch little 

 skaters and water-spiders in the margin of the 

 marsh. It is this habit of finding the most of 

 their food in mud and fresh- water marsh-ground 

 that has given the coot the popular name of mud- 

 hen. No matter if it is a rooster, we call it mud- 

 hen, exactly as we call the phcebe-bird "Phoebe," 

 be it male or female, old or young. 



Should you get very hungry out hunting, and 



