24* ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



season it frequents lakes, and several nests may be found in the 

 space of a few hundred yards, and at that season of the year 

 the Coot is a retiring bird and keeps more to the reeds than to 

 the open water. Of an evening, however, they may be seen 

 slowly swimming about, when the white shield on their forehead 

 renders them easily recognisable from the Moor-Hens. In the 

 autumn they congregate together, and will associate with the 

 Ducks on a decoy, so much so. that I have often seen a 

 great many killed during a day's Duck-shooting. They trust 

 to escape more by swimming under the overhanging branches of 

 the trees and bushes than by flight, though a Coot, when once 

 launched on the wing, is a powerful flier. In the winter vast 

 numbers used to congregate in Pagham Harbour, and the same 

 may be said of Poole Harbour. 



Nest. A round and compact structure of dry flags, built in 

 the shallow water, near the edge of a lake, and resting on a 

 foundation of reeds. The example in the Natural History 

 Museum, which I took years ago on Sir Edward Shelley's 

 lake at Avington, was decorated with mangolds, which were 

 intertwined among the flags forming the rim of the nest. 



Eggs. From seven to ten in number, though Mr. Robert 

 Reed tells me that eight is the largest number he has ever found 

 in a Coot's nest. Ground-colour stone-buff or pale clay-colour, 

 sometimes inclining to olive, the whole of the surface minutely 

 dotted with dark brown or blackish spots, the underlying spots 

 being purplish-grey, and equally plentifully distributed. Axis, 

 1-9-2-2 inches; diam., 1-35-1-45. 



THE PIGEONS. ORDER COLUMBIFORMES. 



In the Pigeons the bill is schizognathous, and the nasals 

 are schizorhinal, with basipterygoid processes present and 

 placed medially. The primary-quills are eleven in number and 

 the fifth secondary is absent. The hind-toe is connected with 

 the flexor longus halluds tendon, and not with the flexor 

 perforans digitorum ; the two deep plantar tendons not being 

 free, but united by a " vinculum." The hind-toe is on the 

 same level as the others. The bill is swollen at the tip, the 

 latter being hard and convex, while the basil portion is covered 



