394 



ALECT0IIIDE3. 



1^ 



Had. Till' wholu of Nortli Atni'iica, ^liddle Amuiica, iiiul West Imlies; north to Oreeuluiul 

 •and Alaska, soutb to Vera^nia and Trinitlad. 



Si'. Chau. Ailiill : (ii'UL'ial color uniform .slatt'-color or slaty pluinbeous, tin.' IkmuI and neck 

 and anterior central jKirtion of the crissuni lilack ; lateral and jiosterior portions of the crissiiui, 

 edye of winj,', and tips of secondaries white. (In winter, the belly suJfiised with whitish.) liill 

 milk-white, more bluish terminally, each numdible with a spot of dark brown near the end, bor- 

 dered anteriorly with a more or less distinct bar of reddish chestnut ; frontal shield dark chestniu- 

 or liver-ljrown, the culinen just in front of this tinned with greenish yellow ; iris brif,'ht crimson ; 

 lej,'s bright yellowish f,'i'een, the tiliiiu tinged liehind and aliove with orange-red ; toes light bluish 



illitl^:<:^ 



gray, tinged with yellowish green on scutelhe of basal phalanges.i Youmj: .Similar, but lower 

 parts more gray, and much sufl'used with whitish, especially on the throat and belly ; bill dull 

 tlesh-color, tinged with olive-greenish, the frontal shield rudimentary ; iris brown. Dmmy youmj: 

 Prevailing color blackish plumbeous ; head, neck, and upper jiarts relieved by numerous cris|., 

 elongated, somewhat filamentous bristles, these sparse, light orange-bulf and white, on the upinr 

 parts, but dense and deep salmon-orange (m the head and neck, where the dark jdumbeous dduii 

 is almost or quite concealed ; these colored filaments entirely absent from the whole pileum. wliitii 

 is mostly balil toward the oi'(dput, elsewhere covered with closely appressed black bristles ; Ions 

 densely covered with short, sl.imen-like, orange-red papillce. Bill orange-red, the tip of the max- 

 illa black ; feet dusky (in skin). 



Total length, about 14 inches ; wing, 7.25-7.00 ; culmen (to commencement of frontal shicH), 

 1.25-1.50; tarsus, 2.(K)-2.20 ; middle toe, ■2.45-2.(i5. 



The Coiunion Coot of the North American f.inna has a very widely extended 

 distribution. It is found present and breeding in a large jiart of Northern South 

 America, in Jamaica, ( 'uba, and other West India Islands, in many of the Southern 

 States, in the Northwestern States, in the interior between the Missouri and tlie 

 Western Mountains, on the Pacific coast, and on the Saskatchewan and the Mackenzie 

 as far to the north as the 55th ])arallel. and even farther. It is not so common on 

 the Atlantic coast, and is met with chiefly, or wholly, in its migrations — usually in 

 September. It is very abundant in Mexico in the winter. Two instances are cited 

 by Reinhardt of its having been taken in Greenland : one was in 1854, by Mr. Olric, 

 the governor of North Greenlaml, in the harbor of Christianshaab ; the other in tlu; 

 s.ime year, by Holbiill, at Godthaab. It is an occasional visitant of Bermuda, liicli- 

 ardson, who met with it in the Fur Country, states that its habits exactly resemble 

 those of the closely allied Euro|)ean Coot. The small grassy lakes Avhich skirt tiie 

 Saskatchewan Plains are much frequented by this species. It was not met with near 



' Fresh colors of an udiilt male killwl at Wheatland, Ind., April 1.5, 1881. 



