212 BIRDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



Family LOBIPEDID^E. 



COOT, Fulica atra. The Coot is only found resi- 

 dent throughout the year on such pools of water as 

 are strictly preserved.* Except during winter, it 

 is a rarer bird than the Moorhen, but at that sea- 

 son, especially if the weather be severe, it visits us 

 in some numbers, in "coverts" of from ten to 

 twenty and upwards. The greatest number of 

 Coots reckoned in one "covert" inland, was forty- 

 one; but when the fresh-water pools and rivers, 

 which this bird much prefers to the sea, are frozen 

 up, they visit the coast, and may there be counted 

 by hundreds. A Coot may always be known from a 

 Moorhen on the water by its attitude ; the former 

 swims with head and tail very low, the head poked 

 forward ; the latter, vice versa, with head erect and 

 tail jerked up almost at right angles to the back. 

 The Moorhen's white tail, or, rather, under-tail 

 coverts, also serve to distinguish it, the same parts 

 in the Coot being black. 



In some respects Coots differ a good deal from 

 other water-birds in their habits. They feed by day 

 and roost at night, grazing like geese on the tender 

 leaves and shoots of young grass, and varying their 



* A Coot, with perfect wings, has twice been observed 

 upon the Serpentine in Hyde Park. 



