WISDOM OF THE COOT 281 



rather, as I imagine, because the white succulent stems 

 of aquatic plants growing deep in the water is their 

 favourite food; they are accustomed to have it dived 

 for by their parents and brought up to them, and 

 they never appear to get enough to satisfy them ; 

 but when they are big, and their parents refuse to 

 slave for them, they seem to want to make the little 

 grebes their fishers for succulent stems. 



One day in August 1899, I witnessed a pretty little 

 bird comedy at the Pen Ponds, in Richmond Park, 

 which seemed to throw a strong light on the inner or 

 domestic life of the coot. For a space of twenty 

 minutes I watched an old coot industriously diving 

 and bringing up the white parts of the stems of Poly- 

 gonum persicaria, which grows abundantly there, to- 

 gether with the rarer more beautiful Lymnanthemum 

 nymphoides, which is called Lymnanth for short. I 

 prefer an English name for a British plant, an ex- 

 ceedingly attractive one in this case, and so beg leave 

 to call it Water-crocus. The old bird was attended 

 by a full-grown young one, which she was feeding, and 

 the unfailing diligence and quickness of the parent 

 were as wonderful to see as the gluttonous disposition 

 of its offspring. The old coot dived at least three 

 times every minute, and each time came up with a 

 clean white stem, the thickness of a stout clay pipe- 

 stem, cut the proper length about three to four 

 inches. This the young bird would take and in- 

 stantly swallow; but before it was well down his 



