GALLINULIN^E. FULICA. 119 



mandibles, their base being pale red ; feet bluish-grey, with 

 an olivaceous-orange ring on the tibia. Young with the 

 upper parts dark greyish-green, the lower dull brownish-grey. 

 Grey or brownish individuals are sometimes met with. 



Male, 16, 22, 8|, 2J, !, 2^, iV 



The Coot is generally distributed in Britain, but in winter 

 retires to the southern parts. Its favourite places of resort 

 are large pools, lakes, or rivers, overgrown or margined with 

 reeds, flags, sedges, water-lilies, and other aquatic plants, 

 among which it is seen swimming in search of its food, which 

 consists of seeds, fresh blades of grass, mollusca, and worms. 

 Sometimes it makes excursions into the neighbouring fields, 

 when it runs and walks precisely in the manner of the water- 

 hen. It floats lightly on the water, swims sedately, jerking 

 its tail ; dives with ease, and eludes pursuit by retreating be- 

 neath the surface of the water, to emerge in a concealed part. 

 In summer it emits a very loud, abrupt cry, resembling the 

 note of a trumpet. The nest is extremely large ; the eggs, 

 from six to ten, elongated oval, light yellowish-grey, dotted 

 with brownish-black, two inches and a twelfth long, an inch 

 and five-twelfths in breadth. The young are covered with 

 black down tipped with white, the hind part of the head yel- 

 low, the frontal membrane blood-red. 

 I Bald Coot. Bald Duck. 



Fulica atra, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 257. Fulica atra, Lath. 

 Ind. Ornith. ii. 777. Fulica atra, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. 

 ii. 706. Fulica atra, Bald Coot, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, 

 iv. 



We now come to the last order of the Grallatorial series, 

 composed of slender, long-legged, generally conic-billed birds, 

 addicted to wading, and, without exception, essentially 

 aquatic or littoral. Although several of them greatly re- 

 semble some of the Cursitrices in form, they are unable to 

 run with the same ease, their feet being differently formed, 

 but advance with a slow and sedate motion, whence the 

 name of Stalkers, not inaptly applied to them by Mr Blythe. 

 They are more truly piscivorous than the birds of the other 

 groups, and their stomach accordingly differs in being thin 

 or membraneous, while their gullet is wide, and their intes- 

 tine elongated and very narrow. 



