PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 565 



hen, the coot is still widely distributed on all our larger sheets of water and the 

 slower flowing rivers and marshes, and as it is somewhat gregarious in its habits, 

 is found in great numbers in some districts. In the Shetlands, however, it is 

 scarce, and breeds only in a few places in the south. On the Continent it has been 

 found in Norway up to lat. 70, and 61 in Sweden ; in Finland to 61, and in the 

 Urals up to 57. From here it is found throughout Europe in suitable localities 

 south to the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and also breeds in the Azores, in the 

 marshes of North Africa, and in most of the Mediterranean islands. In Asia it 

 is found across the Continent, ranging north to 63 on the Lena, and east to Ussuria 

 and Japan, though possibly the eastern birds may prove to be a local race. South- 

 ward in Asia its range extends to Asia Minor, Palestine, N. Persia, Baluchistan, 

 India, China, and Formosa. Over a great part of its range it is sedentary, but in 

 the north, and especially in hard winters, many birds migrate south to the Medi- 

 terranean region and Africa south to the Blue Nile, Southern Asia, Celebes, and 

 Java, and stragglers have been recorded from the Faeroes and Iceland, as well as 

 Madeira and the Canaries. In Australia and Tasmania it is represented by allied 

 races, and by other species in N. and S. America, [r. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. Resident, and to a great extent stationary except for such 

 local movements as may be made necessary by the freezing over of summer haunts. 

 A certain amount of southward movement within Great Britain appears to take 

 place in winter, when a decrease is observable in Shetland and an increase in the 

 south of England (cf. Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909, p. 402). Great gatherings of 

 coots occur in tidal waters in hard weather, notably in such places as Lough Swilly 

 (Donegal) and Poole Harbour (Dorset). Occasionally killed at the light-stations. 

 [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nest is a bulky structure of dead flags, reeds, and 

 water plants, and is generally built up in the water among aquatic plants to a 

 height of a foot or rather less : sometimes resting on a branch of a tree. Occa- 

 sionally the rushes or sedges growing round the nest are carefully bent over so as 

 to form a green canopy over the eggs, concealing them from sight from above. 

 (PL Lvm.) The male assists his mate in building the nest. (PL 135.) The 

 eggs as a rule vary from 7 to 9 in number, but occasionally 12 to 15 or 

 18 eggs may be found in one nest, though probably not the produce of one hen, 

 and in one case 22 have been recorded. In colour they are stone-grey, some- 

 times with an ochreous tinge, finely speckled all over with small purple-brown or 

 blackish spots, and show as a rule little range of variation, although differing some- 



VOL. III. 4D 



