174 RALLID.E. 



A solitary example is recorded by Reinhardt as having 

 straggled to Greenland in 1876, and that Peninsula has 

 also been visited by the North American representative, 

 Fulica americana, which may be distinguished from the 

 European bird by its white lateral under tail-coverts. 



Colonel Hawker, in his Instructions to Young Sportsmen, 

 says, "If a gentleman wishes to have plenty of wild-fowl 

 on his pond, let him preserve the Coots, and keep no tame 

 Swans. The reason that all wild-fowl seek the company of 

 the Coots is because these birds are such good sentries, to 

 give the alarm by day, when the fowl generally sleep." 



The Coot is seldom seen on dry land, and its power of 

 active progression on shore has been doubted ; but instead 

 of being awkward on land, it is fully as lively as in the 

 water, standing firmly and steadily, and without any totter- 

 ing or waddling in its gait, and running with amazing 

 rapidity on the ooze. It picks up grain with surprising 

 alacrity, even much quicker than any of our domestic 

 poultry. If deprived of water on which to pass the night, 

 it will roost, as other land birds, upon any elevated situa- 

 tion, and it will ascend a tree with the activity of a Wren. 

 In reference^ to the power of its claws, the sportsman's book 

 already referred to contains the following caution : " Beware 

 of a winged Coot, or he will scratch you like a cat." 



Coots feed on aquatic insects, worms, slugs, and various 

 portions of vegetable matter. They breed in many parts 

 of England, forming a nest of flags, among reeds, upon the 

 margins of lakes, ponds, and rivers. Hewitson says that 

 "he has had opportunities of examining many of their 

 nests. They are large, and apparently clumsy at first sight, 

 but are amazingly strong and compact ; they are sometimes 

 built on a tuft of rushes, but more commonly amongst reeds ; 

 some are supported by those that lie prostrate on the water, 

 whilst others have their foundations at its bottom, and are 

 raised till they become from six to twelve inches above its 

 surface, sometimes in a depth of one and a half or two feet. 

 So firm are some of them, that, whilst up to the knees in 

 water, they afforded me a seat sufficiently strong to support 



