ri6 f H E CRANE KIN D; 



water edge. Her eggs are fharp at one end, white, with a tincture oF 

 green, fpotted with red. She lays twice or thrice in a funnmer ; her young 

 fwim the moment they leave the egg, purfue their parent, and imitate all 

 her manners. She rears, frequently, two or three broods in a feafon; and 

 when the young are grown up, fhe drives them off to (hift for themfelves. 



According to the feafon, forfakes or return to neighbouring moun- 

 tains, defcending in hard weather ; the fpecies is greatly fpread. There 

 are three races, diftinguifhable by their difference in fize. Plumage iron- 

 grey and white. 



THE COOT, 



^r^ H O U G H not entirely web-footed, is as good a fwimmer as any 

 t bird whatever j and perhaps palTes as much of its time on the 

 water as any, except the Divers : is rarely feen on the land, or, if feen 

 there, is fo out of its element that it may be taken with the hand; flies 

 and feeks its food at night j and, like many water birds, fees diftinftly in 

 obfcurity; keeps in rivers, and among rulhy margined lakes. It there 

 makes a neft of fuch weeds as the ilream fupplies, and lays them one on 

 another, without order, among the reeds, floating on the flirface, and ri- 

 ling and falling with the water. The reeds keep it faft ; fo that it is 

 feldom wafhed into the ftream ; but if this happens, the bird fits in her 

 neft, like a mariner in his boat, and with her legs fteers her cargo into the 

 neareft harbour : there fhe continues to fit in great tranquillity, regardlefs 

 of the impetuofity of the current; and though the water penetrates her 

 neft, fhe hatches her eggs in that wet condition. 



When difturbed in her retreat, hides among the rufhes, and even in the 

 mud, rather than take to flight ; the young are playful, and not fo cir- 

 cumfpeft, which expofes them to the deftrudlive pounces of the buzzard ; 

 they often dive fo inftantly as to efcape the (hot fired at them. In early 

 winter they aflemble in lakes, and, though chafed by boats, only fly 

 from fide to fide of the lake, by which obftinacy many hundreds arc 

 killed: lays eighteen or nineteen eggs, hatches in twenty-two or twenty- 

 three days ; the young diredly leap into the water, and never re-enter the 

 neft ; are then black and downy; the white creft-like furface on the head 

 fcarcely difcernible. This fubftance is a prolongation of the upper layer, 

 which compofes the upper mandible; this is foftand almoft flefhy at the 

 bafe. Plumage black, in fize equals a hen ; its feet have a large mem- 

 branous border, fcolloped; lives on water-infedts, fmall fifli, &c. fome- 

 times cats grain : their flefh is black. 



4 THE 



