CHAP, xvm.] DABCHICK-COOT. 149 



actions in the water. Where undisturbed, they soon become bold 

 and confident. These little fellows used to swim close to me, 

 and after looking up in my face with an arch cock of their tiny 

 head, turn up their round sterns and dip under the water. 

 They often remained so long under water, that the circles made 

 in the calm pool from their last dive were quite obliterated from 

 the surface before the saucy-looking little fellows would rise 

 again, often in exactly the same spot, when they would look at 

 me again, as if to be sure of who I was ; then, turning half over 

 in the water, they would scratch their neck with their curiously 

 formed foot, shake their apology of a wing, and dip under 

 again. 



One day my dog jumped into the water for a swim, and the 

 motions of the birds were then very different. They dived 

 rapidly to the other end of the pool, where they rose, shoeing 

 only the very tip of their bill, which 1 could distinguish by the 

 small wave in the water made when it first came up. After 

 remaining in this position for a short time, they gradually lifted 

 up more and more of their head, till seeing that all danger was 

 over arid that the dog had left their pool, they rose entirely to 

 the surface, and shaking their feathers resumed their usual atti- 

 tudes, keeping, however, at a respectful distance and watching 

 the dog. After the young ones were hatched and full grown 

 they again disappeared, leaving us for the winter. How or where 

 they went it is difficult to imagine. 



If the weather is tolerably open, the bald coot arrives here 

 early in the spring. It is very difficult to make this bird fly, 

 unless it happens to be surprised in the open part of the lake, 

 when it darts off immediately to the rushes, where, diving and 

 wading with great quickness, it remains so completely concealed 

 that neither dog nor man can put it up again. Its young ones 

 are like a ball of black down, but swim about and dive as 

 cleverly as their parents. They build a very large nest amongst 

 the rushes growing in the water, and sit very close. The coot 

 has an ornamental appearance on a sheet of water, from their 

 constant activity in swimming about, and their loud, wild cry 

 adds an interest to the solitude of the Highland lake. 



The water-hen is another bird which deserves encouragement 

 and protection, as they repay it by becoming tame and familiar, 



