RALLID.E THE RAILS, GALLINULES, AND COOTS. 85 



with whitish, especially on the throat and belly ; bill dull flesh-color, tinged with olive- 

 greenish, the frontal shield rudimentary; iris brown. Downy young: Prevailing color 

 blackish plumbeous; head, neck, and upper parts relieved by numerous crisp, elongated, 

 somewhat filamentous bristles, these sparse, light orange-buff and white on the upper 

 parts, but dense and deep salmon- orange on the head and neck, where the dark plumbeous 

 down is almost or quite concealed; these colored filaments entirely absent from the whole 

 pileum, which is mostly bald toward the occiput, elsewhere covered with closely appressed 

 black bristles; lores densely covered with short, stamen- like, orange-red papillae. Bill 

 orange -red, the tip of the maxilla black; feet dusky (in skin). 



Total length, about 14 inches; wing, 7.25-7.60; culmen (to commencement of frontal 

 shield), 1.25-1.50; tarsus, 2.00-2.20; middle toe, 2.45-2.65. 



The Coot is an exceedingly abundant summer resident in the 

 more northern portions of the State. Mr. Nelson, in his list of 

 the birds of Cook and adjacent counties (Bull. Essex Inst. VIII., 

 1876, pp. 135, 136), says the following concerning it: 



"Exceedingly abundant. Summer resident in large marshes, 

 and it is far from rare in any marshy situation. Arrives the 

 last of April and remains until the last of November. Nests at 

 the same time as the Florida Gallinule, but shows a greater 

 preference for reed patches, in which its nests are usually located, 

 often in from two to four feet of water. The nests are gener- 

 ally larger than those of gallinules, and rarely composed of 

 other material than the dry stalks of reeds. Dr. Coues's descrip- 

 tion of the nidiflcation of this species will answer for most of 

 the cases I have observed, and I have examined a large number 

 of nests. (See "Birds of the Northwest," p. 542.) As winter 

 approaches, and the marshes and shallow pools become covered 

 with ice, these birds congregate in immense flocks on the rivers 

 and small lakes, and remain until the cold weather closes the 

 streams. 



"This bird has a curious habit when approached by a boat 

 in a stream, rising often before the boat is within gunshot, and 

 flying directly by the boatman, generally so near that it may 

 be easily brought down. The abundance of ducks and other 

 game birds has caused the birds of this family to be but little 

 molested, until within a few years, when the amateur sportsmen 

 from Chicago, finding the ducks difficult to obtain, and "mud- 

 hens," as coots and gallinules are called, conveniently tame, 

 have turned their batteries upon them and have caused a dimi- 

 nution in their numbers about the Calumet Marshes. But in 

 the more retired marshes they still breed in undiminished num- 

 bers." 



