LOBIPEDIDJE. 453 



the snow for a considerable distance. They in- 

 variably leave me before the breeding- season is much 

 advanced, partly I think because there is not suffi- 

 cient swampy rushy accommodation, and partly 

 because they are bullied by the Moorhens, who 

 generally have the best of a battle with them, in 

 spite of the superior weight and size of the Coot. 



The nest is usually placed amongst flags and 

 rushes growing in the water ; sometimes it is built 

 on a tuft of rushes or coarse grass above the water, 

 and sometimes its foundation is actually placed in 

 the bottom in water quite a foot deep, and a structure 

 of reeds, rushes and flags is raised till it reaches 

 quite a foot above the water : the materials of this 

 column are reeds cut up to the required length and 

 laid crosswise on one another over a common centre 

 with great regularity, and the lining is a mass of 

 cut-up reed- blades.* Bewick mentions an instance 

 of a nest which was loosened by the wind and floated 

 about upon the surface of the water in every direc- 

 tion, notwithstanding which the female continued to 

 sit as usual and brought out her young. 



The food of the Coot consists, according to 

 Yarrell, of small fish, aquatic insects and vegetable 

 matter. Meyer, however, says that neither fish nor 

 frogs have been found in the stomach of the Coot, 

 but corn of several kinds. In my own pond I have 



* ' Zoologist' for 1867 (Second Series, p. 603). 



