572 



A HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER CXXII. 



OF THE WATER-HEN, AND THE COOT. 



BEFORE we enter upon water-fowls, pro- 

 perly so called, two or three birds claim our 

 attention, which seem to form the shade be- 

 tween the web-footed tribe and those of the 

 crane kind. These partake rather of the form 

 than the habits of the crane ; and, though fur- 

 nished with long legs and necks, rather swim 

 than wade. They cannot properly be called 

 web-footed; nor yet are they entirely desti- 

 tute of membranes, which fringe their toes on 

 each side, and adapt them for swimming. 

 The birds in question are, the Water-Hen 

 and the Bald-Coot. 



These birds have too near an affinity, not 

 to be ranked in the same description. They 

 are shaped entirely alike, their legs are long, 

 and their thighs partly bare; their necks are 

 proportionable, their wings short, their bills 

 short and weak, their colour black, their fore- 

 heads bald and without feathers, and their 

 habits entirely the same. These, however, 

 naturalists have thought proper to range in 

 different classes, from very slight distinctions 

 in their figure. The water-hen weighs but 

 fifteen ounces ; the coot twenty-four. The 

 bald part of the forehead in the coot is black; 

 in the water-hen it is of a beautiful pink co- 

 lour. The toes of the water-hen are edged 

 'with a straight membrane; those of the coot 

 have it scolloped and broader. 



The differences in the figure are but slight; 

 and those in their manner of living still less. 

 The history of the one will serve for both. 

 As birds of the crane kind are furnished with 

 long wings, and easily change place, the wa- 

 ter-hen, whose wings are short, is obliged to 

 reside entirely near those places where her 

 food lies: she cannot take those long journeys 

 that most of the crane kind are seen to per- 

 form; compelled by her natural imperfections, 

 as well perhaps as by inclination, she never 

 leaves the side of the pond or the river in 

 which she seeks for provision. Where the 



stream is selvaged with sedges, or the pond 

 edged with shrubby trees, the water-hen is 

 generally a resident there: she seeks her food 

 along the grassy banks, and often along the 

 surface of the water. With Shakspeare's Ed- 

 gar, she drinks the green mantle of the stand- 

 ing pool ; or, at least, seems to prefer those 

 places where it is seen. Whether she makes 

 pond-weed her food, or hunts among it for 

 water-insects, which are found there in great 

 abundance, is not certain. I have seen them 

 when pond-weed was taken out of their sto- 

 mach. She builds her nest upon low trees 

 and shrubs, of sticks and fibres, by the water- 

 side. Her eggs are sharp at one end, white, 

 with a tincture of green, spotted with red. 

 She lays twice or thrice in a summer; her 

 young ones swim the moment they leave the 

 egg, pursue their parent, and imitate all her 

 manners. She rears, in this manner, two or 

 three broods in a season: and when the young 

 are grown up, she drives them off to shift foe 

 themselves. 



As the coot is a larger bird, it is always 

 seen in larger streams, and more remote from 

 mankind. The water-hen seems to prefer in- 

 habited situations: she keeps near ponds, 

 moats, and pools of water near gentlemen's 

 houses; but the coot keeps in rivers, and 

 among rushy margined lakes. It there makes 

 a nest of such weeds as the stream supplies, 

 and lays them among the reeds, floating on 

 the surface, and rising and falling with the 

 water. The reeds among which it is built 

 keep it fast; so that it is seldom washed into 

 the middle of the stream. But if this hap- 

 pens, which is sometimes the case, the bird 

 sits in her nest, like a mariner in his boat, 

 and steers with her legs her cargo into the 

 nearest harbour: there, having attained her 

 port, she continues to sit in great tranquillity, 

 rega dies of the impetuosity of the current; 

 and though the water penetrates her nest, 



