452 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE, 



This is the last of the Rallidse which I have been 

 able to include in this list : as I said before, this 

 family seems to make a sort of link between the 

 wading and swimming birds, especially as the 

 present species is such an expert swimmer and 

 diver : this link is still further closed up by the 

 next family. 



Family 



The famity of LobipedidaB, at which I have now 

 arrived, the last amongst the Waders, is a very 

 small one, containing only one British species.* 



COMMON COOT, Fulica atra.. The tolerably well- 

 known " Bald Coot " is a common bird in most of 

 our larger ponds, where it breeds and remains 

 throughout the year, except in very hard frosts, 

 when these ponds become frozen ; it then leaves 

 them either for ponds less liable to freeze or for the 

 running brooks, and occasionally for the sea-coast. 

 A pair or two generally come to my pond in the 

 winter. Though generally ungainly birds on the 

 land they seem at that time to take longish walks, 

 as I have tracked their unmistakable foot-prints in 



* 



Some systems, that of Meyer for instance, include the 

 Phalaropes amongst the Lobipedidoe, on account of the 

 somewhat similar structure of the feet. 



