602 THE RAILS 



wings as it sails along, that is, joined in the shape of a shield, with the 

 rounded or convex side pointing forward. In actual fighting the 

 combatants use beak and claws, rising on the water and striking till 

 one or other has enough, and dives. 



The coot will not only resent intrusion by its own species, but by 

 others. They have occasionally, however, to accept waterhen as 

 close neighbours, or, more probably, it is the latter that have to submit 

 to intrusion. Miss E. L. Turner has noted that in the Norfolk Broads 

 coots and grebes generally build near together. In one case two 

 nests, one a grebe's the other a coot's, were found only eighteen 

 inches apart, and were photographed with a bird on each. Neither 

 pair sought to interfere with the other; each went freely about its own 

 business, except that the male grebe permitted no trespass by the 

 coots on the space between the nests, and forced the male to feed 

 his mate from the farther side. On one occasion there occurred 

 a serious breach of the relations established, but this was during the 

 temporary absence of the grebes. The hen coot, then sitting on her 

 nest, moved either by a feminine desire to pry into the affairs of her 

 neighbours, or by more vindictive feelings, slipped off her nest and 

 climbed into that of the grebe. She lifted the covering from the eggs, 

 and proceeded to move them about, giving one a specially vicious 

 poke. As these proceedings seemed to be taking a somewhat mis- 

 chievous turn, Miss Turner thought it prudent to release the shutter 

 of her camera. The noise of its fall sufficed to send the coot off in 

 haste to her own nest, but not before photographic evidence of her 

 trespass had been obtained. 1 



I have not seen the love-display of the coot, and can find no record 

 of it. But during the period of nest-building, in early April, I have 

 noticed a pair cosseting in the most affectionate manner with their 

 beaks each other's heads and necks. The nest of this pair was 



1 The photographs mentioned are published, with a full descriptive account, in the Home 

 Life of Marsh-Birds, by E. L. Turner and P. H. Bahr. For other instances of coot nesting 

 both with grebes and blackheaded-gulls, see Naumann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, vii. 133. 



