310 THE COOT. 



When the young are hatched, they look more like little 

 puff-balls than the bodies of birds, with their bright red 

 heads sticking out like handles. For some days they lead a 

 weary life, exposed as they are to the attacks of pike, and we 

 believe of rats, which devour numbers of them, in spite of the 

 flouncings and flappings of the poor mother, who in vain tries 

 to drive away the intruder. It is surprising, indeed, how 

 any of them escape ; for though they are tolerably active, no 

 efforts of theirs are sufficient to elude the swift, unerring, 

 open-mouthed dart of a voracious pike. Against other 

 enemies they can make a better defence ; and we have fre- 

 quently witnessed the beautiful instinct with which they 

 manage to elude pursuit. On seeing a fleet of these little 

 red-headed floaters, paddling away in the rear of their two 

 velvet- coated parents, we have often given chase. It is not 

 till the danger of capture becomes imminent, that the old 

 ones desert their charge, first giving the convoy a signal to 

 disperse by a few short but most expressive clucks. When 

 hard pressed, the young bird dives, and, if the water is clear, 

 may be traced, working away with all its energies ; but, after 

 remaining about a minute below, during which time it will 

 dive some fifteen or twenty yards, it is forced to rise, and 

 the chase is renewed. After a few divings, it becomes 

 exhausted, and is easily taken. The downy covering, too, 

 seems to partake of the weakened force of the body ; for the 

 harder the little bird is pressed, the more susceptible is it of 

 moisture ; and, instead of rising above the water glossy and 

 dry, like a powder-puff, it. becomes wet and spongy. Should 

 it, however, contrive to gain a patch of weeds before it is 

 quite exhausted, it seems to disappear by magic ; in vain is 

 its rising looked for, not a ripple betrays its progress ; and, 

 had we not been fortunate enough, in several instances, to 

 detect it, cowering about an inch below the surface, its body 

 under the shelter of a floating leaf, and its beak projecting 

 just to admit an occasional supply of air, we might have 

 concluded that the poor little bird had either fallen in with a 

 Pike, or fairly foundered. As if conscious of their safety, we 

 have watched them, remaining motionless for several minutes 



