BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 75 



rounding- reeds." During- the winter months coots may be seen in large 

 flocks along- the St. John's river, Florida ; at " Mud Lake," about ten 

 miles north of Sanford, I have seen over a thousand in one flock. 



The coot is found throug-hout Pennsylvania as a common spring- and 

 fall migrant April, September and October frequenting- usually 

 sloughs, pools and sluggish streams. They generally are much more 

 numerous in autumn than in spring ; and at Erie bay these birds are 

 frequently seen, especially in the fall, in flocks, swimming among the 

 reeds and rank grasses near the shore. I have never observed the coot 

 in Pennsylvania in the breeding season, and am quite certain it seldom 

 breeds here. Lists of birds received by me from naturalists and collec- 

 tors, residing in all but five or six counties of the commonwealth, with 

 two exceptions, show that the coot has been noted only as a spring and 

 fall visitor. That it has been found breeding in at least two localities, 

 there appears to be no doubt, as both Mr. S. S. Overmoyer, of Mercer 

 county, and Dr. John W. Detwiller, of Northampton county, mention it 

 as a native. "Eggs, about a dozen, 1.75 to 2.00 long by 1.20 to 1.35 broad, 

 shaped like an average hen's egg, clear clay -color, uniformly and min- 

 utely dotted with dark brown, the spots usually mere pin-heads, some- 

 times large blotches. The nest is sometimes on dry ground a little way 

 from water. The young hatch covered with black down, fantastically 

 striped with bright orange-red, with vermillion bill tipped with black." 

 Coues. 



Audubon states that its food consists of seeds, grasses, small fishes,, 

 worms, snails and insects, along with which it introduces into its stom- 

 ach a good quantity of rather coarse sand. Nuttall observes that they 

 feed principally on aquatic vegetable substances, as seeds, leaves, etc. 

 In March, 1885, I obtained seventeen coots at Little Lake George, 

 Florida, and found in the stomachs of all only small seeds, blades of 

 grass, with, in most every instance, a small quantity of sand or gravel. 

 Six of these birds, which I have obtained in Chester county, Pa., had 

 only vegetable materials, small black and yellow seeds, also sand in 

 their muscular gizzards. 



ORDER LIMICOLJ1. SHORE BIRDS. 



FAMILY PHALAROPODHXffi. PHALAROPES. 



THE PHALAROPES. 



Three species of this family are found in the United States, and two, at least, occur 

 more or less regularly in Pennsylvania. Although these birds resemble, in many 

 respects, the sandpipers, they can readily be distinguished from the latter by the 

 curious lobate feet, like those of the grebes and coot, previously described. Phala- 

 ropes, the smallest of our swimming birds, spend much of their time in the water, 

 on which they swim in an easy and graceful manner. The under plumage is com- 



