50 



Fulica atra. 



Bald Coot. 



EGG OBSEEVED. 



May 31st, 1865. 

 May 4tli, 1866. 



1870. 



Though, this is not at all a rare bird in many parts of 

 England, it certainly is far from common in this neighbour- 

 hood, owing most probably to the absence of large sheets 

 of water such as the Coot generally frequents. There are 

 perhaps only two such spots in the district, viz., Swindon 

 reservoir and the artificial water in Ramsbury Chase. At 

 the first of these places the Coot is certainly a resident in 

 some numbers, and it is chiefly on account of that, that I 

 have included it in the present section of my little work. 

 At Ramsbury two or three nests are most probably built 

 every season, but there are but few birds. 



ISTow and then, generally in the winter, specimens are 

 observed in the water meadows close by Marlborough, 

 especially those at Mildenhall. The two specimens now in 

 the Colleo^e Museum were both shot in this last mentioned 

 locality one in 1866, and the other in February 1868. 



