126 FULICA AMERICANA. 



covered with close fine feathers. The thighs are placed 

 far behind, are fleshy, strong, and bare above the 

 knees. 



The gizzard resembles a hen's, and is remarkably 

 large and muscular. That of the bird which has hern 

 described was filled with sand,' gravel, shells, and the 

 remains of aquatic plants. 



Buffon describes the mode of shooting coots in France, 

 particularly in Lorraine, on the great pools of Tiaucourt, 

 and of Indre ; hence we are led to suppose, that they 

 are esteemed as an article of food. But with us, who 

 are enabled, by the abundance and variety of game, to 

 indulge in greater luxuries in that season when our 

 coots visit us, they are considered as of no account, and 

 are seldom eaten. 



The European ornithologists represent the membrane 

 on the forehead of the fulica atra as white, except in 

 the breeding season, when it is said to change its colour 

 to pale red. In every specimen of the cinereous coot 

 which I have seen, except one, the membrane of the 

 forehead was of a dark chestnut brown colour. The 

 one alluded to was a fine adult male, shot in the Dela- 

 ware,at Philadelphia, on the 1 1th of May : the membrane 

 was of a pure white ; no white marking beneath the 

 eye ; legs and feet of a bright grass green. 



In Wilson's figure of the coot, there are some slight 

 errors : the auriculars are designated, which should not 

 have been done, as they are not distinguishable from 

 the rest of the plumage of the head and neck, whirh is 

 all of a fine satiny texture; and the outline of the hill 

 is not correct. 



Latham states, that the common European coot 

 (/. atra} is " met with in Jamaica, Carolina, and other 

 parts of North America." This, I presume, is a mistake, 

 as I have never seen but one species of coot in the 

 United States. Brown, in speaking of the birds of 

 Jamaica, mentions a coot, which, in all probability, is 

 the same as ours. The coot mentioned by Sloane is the 

 common gallinnle. So is also that spoken of in the 

 Natural History of Barbadoes, by Hughes, p. 71. 



