eiRDS. 3.i>9 



their foreheads bald and without feathers, and their habits en- 

 tirely the same. These, however, naturalists have thought pro- 

 per to range in different classes, from very slight distinctions in 

 their figure. The water-hen weighs but fifteen ounces ; the coot 

 twenty-four. The bald part of the forehead in the coot is black ; 

 in the water-hen it is of a beautiful pink colour. The toes of 

 the water-hen are edged with a straight membrane ; those of 

 the coot have it scolloped and broader. 



The differences in the figure are but slight ; and those in theit 

 manner of living still less. The history of the one will serve 

 for both. As birds of the crane kind are furnished with long 

 wings, and easily change place, the water-hen, whose wings are 

 short, is obliged to reside entirely near those places where her 

 food lies : she cannot take those long journeys that most of the 

 crane kind are seen to perform ; compelled by her natural imper 

 factions, as well perhaps as by inclination, she never leaves the 

 side of the pond or the river in which she seeks for provision. 

 Where the stream is selvaged with sedges, or the pond edged 

 with shrubby trees, the water-hen is generally a resident there : 

 she seeks her food along the grassy banks, and often along the 

 surface of the water. With Shakspeare's Edgar, she drinks the 

 green mantle of the standing pool ; or, at least seems to prefer 

 those places where it is seen. Whether she makes pond-weed 

 her food, or hunts among it for water-insects, which are found 

 there in great abundance, is not certain. I have seen them when 

 pond-weed was taken out of their stomach. She builds her nest 

 upon low trees and shrubs, of sticks and fibres, by the water- 

 side. Her eggs are sharp at one end, white, with a tincture of 

 green, spotted with red. She lays twice or thrice in a summer ; 

 her young ones swim the moment they leave the egg, pursue theii 

 parent, and imitate all her manners. She rears, in this manner, 

 two or three broods in a season : and when the young are grown 

 up, she drives them off to shift for themselves. 



As the coot is a larger bird, it is always seen in larger streams, 

 and more remote from mankind. The water-hen seems to pre- 

 fer inhabited situations : she keeps near ponds, moats, and j)ools 

 of water near gentlemen's houses ; but the coot keeps in rivers, 

 and among rushy margined lakes. It there makes a nest of such 

 weeds as the stream supplies, and lays them among the reeds, 

 floating on the surface, and rising and falling witii the water , '^ 



