74 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



In addition to the examinations given in the above table, I found in 

 the gizzards of five of these birds, which were killed in Florida, in 

 March, 1885, numerous small yellow and brown seeds ; also the stems 

 and leaves of different kinds of aquatic plants. 



SUBFAMILY FULICIN^B- COOTS. 



THE COOTS. 



Only one species of this subfamily is found in the United States. Coots frequent 

 the same localities in which are found the rails and gallinules. They resemble in 

 many ways their near relatives, the gallinules, from which, however, they can 

 easily be recognized by the large semicircular lobes on front toes. Coots spend 

 much of their time in the water, in which they swim and dive with ease. 



GENUS FULICA LINN^US. 

 Pulica americana GMEL. 



American Coot ; Mud-hen; Crow Duck. 



DESCRIPTION (Plates.) 



Adult, in spring. Bill short, thick and white or nearly so; frontal plate and spot 

 near end of each mandible reddish-brown ; head and neck black ; edge of wing, 

 tips of secondaries, and some of lower tail-coverts white ; rest of plumage dark 

 grayish-lead color, lighter on belly than elsewhere ; eyes reddish or brown ; legs 

 dark greenish-yellow ; length about 14 inches ; extent about 28. The young of this 

 species are similar but everywhere much paler in color. 



Habitat. North America, from Greenland and Alaska, southward to the West 

 Indies and Central America. 



The American Coot, commonly known in eastern Pennsylvania as Mud- 

 hen,* breeds in various localities throughout its extensive range. In the 

 British Provinces it is said to be quite a common summer resident. Mr. 

 Samuels remarks that it breeds probably in all the New England Stater. 

 Dr. Coues has found it breeding in northern Montana and Dakota. Mr. 

 H. W. Henshaw found them to be very numerous at the alkali lakes, 

 southern Colorado, where, according to this eminent authority, " they 

 breed in colonies among the rushes, the nests often being but a few feet 

 apart. These are very bulky structures, composed of weeds and rushes 

 raised to a height of several inches from the surface of the water, so that 

 the eggs are kept perfectly dry, and are moored to the stems of the sur- 



* The vernacular name of Mud-hen is also given to the Clapper Rail (Rallus longirostris crepitans 

 Qmel. ) which breeds so abundantly in the extensive marshes about Atlantic City and elsewhere on the 

 Atlantic coast in New Jersey and southward. 



