THE CRANE KIND. 351 



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 propor- 

 tionable, their wings short, their bills short and 

 weak, their colour black, their foreheads 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 it 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 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 water-hen, 

 whose wings are short, is obliged to reside en- 

 tirely 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 

 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 



