DIRECTORY TO BIRDS OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 119 



C. COOTS. Fuliciclae. 



Differ from JB chiefly in having the toes widely lobated, 

 and the frontal shield is large. 



Fig. 135. 



C. a, 1. 

 a. Coots. Fuiica. 



Characters as above. 



1. AMERICAN COOT, F. AMERICANA. 16.00; bill. 1.30; 

 slaty-blue; head and neck, dusky; tips of secondaries (show- 

 ing in flight) and under tail coverts, white, the latter with a 

 black line in the center ; bill, yellow, white at tip with a band 

 in center and frontal Fig. 136. 



plate, brownish-red ; 

 iris, brown; legs, 

 greenish, fig. 136. 

 Young, duller with 

 the feathers more or 

 less tipped with 

 white. Downy 

 young, black. Breeds 

 chiefly in northern 

 U. S. and southern 

 Canada; common, oc- M, C, a, .1. 1-4. 



curring more rarely north to Greenland and Alaska ; migrates 

 southward, (largely through the interior, but occurring in 

 greater or less numbers east to the Atlantic) to winter in the 

 Gulf States and southward through the West Indies, occur- 

 ring in immense, compact flocks at this season on fresh and 

 brackish waters in Fla. ; -comes north in May, when less com- 

 mon in'the Atlantic States north of the Carolinas. Dives 

 well but does not use the wings under water. Flight, direct 

 with rapid wing-beats ; in rising from the water, swims rapid- 



