BRITISH BIRDS. 153 



with a thick down, and covered with close fine 

 feathers: thighs placed far behind, fleshy and 

 strong, bare, and yellow above the knees : legs and 

 toes commonly of a yellowish green, but sometimes 

 of a lead colour. 



The Common Coot has so many traits in its 

 character, and so many features in its general ap-. 

 pearance like the Rails and Water Hens, that to 

 place it after them seems a natural and easy grada- 

 tion: Linnaeus and other ornithologists, however, 

 describe it as a genus distinct from those birds, 

 and from the waders in general, on account of its 

 being fin-footed, and its constant attachment to the 

 waters, which, indeed, it seldom quits. With it 

 naturalists begin the numerous tribe of swimmers, 

 and rank it among those that are the most com- 

 pletely dependent upon the watery element for 

 their support: it swims and dives with as much 

 ease as almost any of them: and also, like those 

 which seldom venture upon land, it is a bad travel- 

 ler, and may be said not to walk, but to splash and 

 waddle between one pool and another, with a 

 laboured, ill-balanced, and awkward gait. 



These birds, like those of the preceding kinds, 

 skulk and hide themselves, during the day, among 

 rushes, sedges, and weeds, which grow abundantly 

 in the loughs and ponds where they take up their 

 constant abode : they rarely venture abroad, except 

 in the dusk, and in the night, in quest of their food, 

 which consists of the herbage, seeds, insects, and 

 the slippery inhabitants of stagnant waters. It 

 seldom happens that the sportsman and his dog 

 can force the Coot to spring from its retreat; for it 

 will,, in a manner, bury itself in the mud rather 



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