3 o6 



LAKES AND STREAMS 



of worms, small snails, fish-spawn, and gnats, beetles, dragon-flies, and other insects 

 and their larvae. The adult bird is 11 inches long, and has a red beak and hazel 

 eyes. Above, the plumage is fulvous brown with black streaks down the middle 

 of the feathers, and it is bluish grey on the sides of the head, the front part 

 of the neck and under-parts generally ; the Hanks and axillaries being blackish 

 with white bars. 



THE WATER-RAIL. 



Coot. 



That unmistakable bird, the coot (Fulica atra), lives on marshy 

 lakes and smaller sheets of water with reedy shores, and is found 

 but rarely among willow-bushes or trees, generally swimming about on the open 

 water or among the reeds where it finds most of its food, which consists of aquatic 

 insects and their larvae, fish and frog spawn, snails, and worms. It also eats green 

 plants, flower-buds, and all kinds of seeds. It swims easily and smoothly, but 

 rather deep in the water, and accompanies every movement with a nod of its head- 

 In diving, it makes a sort of jump into the water, with its beak downward, and to 

 propel itself when below the surface uses its legs like sculls, seldom remaining under 



