THE CRANE KIND. 187 



knots and gray plover also in the same manner. When these birds 

 are brought from under the net, they are not killed immediately, bul 

 fattened for the table, with bread and milk, hemp-seed, and some- 

 times boiled wheat; but if expedition be wanted, sugar is added, 

 which will make them a lump of fat in a fortnight's time. They are 

 kept, as observed before, in a dark room ; and judgment is required 

 in taking the proper time for killing them, when they are at the high- 

 est pitch of fatness : for, if that is neglected, the birds are apt to fall 

 away. They are reckoned a very great delicacy ; they sell for two 

 shillings, or half-a-crown a piece ; and are served up to the table with 

 the train, like woodcocks, where we will leave them. 



CHAPTER XI. 



OF THE WATER-HEN, AND THE COOT. 



BEFORE we enter upon water-fowls, properly 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 par- 

 take rather of the form than the habits of the crane ; and, though 

 furnished 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 are 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 .t is 

 of a beautiful pink colour. 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 then 

 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 water-hen, whose wings are short, is obliged to re- 

 side entirely near those places where her food lies : she cannot take 

 those long journeys that most of the crane kind are seen to perform ; 

 compelled by her natural imperfections, as well perhaps as by incli- 

 nation, she never leaves the side of the po-nd or the river in which 

 she seeks for provision. Where the stream is selvaged with sedges. 



