42 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



at the beginning of winter, the majority leaving for their more northern nesting 

 places on the return of spring. The Coot delights in the margins of ponds 

 and lakes which are overgrown with aquatic plants, where it can find secure 

 hiding places. When seen on the water it is generally near to the reeds in 

 which it can take refuge. Its large feet are admirably adapted for swimming 

 and running over the soft mud. It can even climb with them into thick bushes 

 and occasionally roosts in them. On the water it swims and floats with ease, its 

 tail and neck being jerked to and fro with every stroke of the feet. It dives 

 with great readiness, is exceedingly shy and wary, when alarmed often keeping 

 the body submerged under water, the eyes and beak only being above the surface. 

 When it takes wing from the water, it does not rise at once into the air, but 

 splashes along for some distance with its wings and feet. 



The voice of the Coot may be described as a loud cry, which has been com- 

 pared by some authors, when several are calling together, to the shrill barking 

 of a small dog. The food of this bird consists of aquatic insects, vegetable 

 substances obtained from aquatic plants, and shell-fish procured by diving. The 

 bird is a nocturnal feeder, and in Bgypt, where the species abounds, is netted at 

 night in considerable numbers. Lord Lilford, who was acquainted with the habits 

 of these birds in the Mediterranean countries, where they congregate in enormous 

 numbers in the winter months, says that battues are organized for their destruction 

 on days fixed by the authorities. He states that until he took part in one of 

 these, he had no idea of the speed at which a driven Coot could fly, and that he 

 regarded a Coot as affording quite as sporting a shot as a Pheasant under the 

 same circumstances. Lord Lilford also informs us that " In Epirus, where the 

 Coot is exceedingly abundant, I several times witnessed the curious manner in 

 which these birds defend themselves from the assaults of feathered enemies by 

 gathering together in a compact mass and simultaneously throwing up a sheet 

 of water with their feet when the raptor made its stoop. On one occasion of this 

 sort, the assailant, an adult White-tailed Eagle, was so thoroughly drenched by 

 this device that it had great difficulty in flapping along to a tree at not more than 

 a hundred yards from the point of attack"; and he describes the cry of the Coot 

 as a whistle which he has frequently heard after dark, apparently proceeding from 

 a considerable height in the air. 



The beak of the Coot is a pale flesh colour, and the bare patch on the 

 forehead perfectly white, hence the name of Bald Coot which is frequently given 

 to it ; below the eye is a small half circle of white. The remainder of the 

 plumage is sooty-black, and slaty-grey in some parts. The secondary wing-feathers 

 are tipped with white, forming a very narrow bar across the wing. The legs and 



