AVES— COOT. 651 



bankment of the river at this season, you hear them squeaking in every 

 direction like young puppies ; if a stone be thrown among the reeds, there 

 is a general outcry, and a reiterated kuk, kuk, kuk, something like that of a 

 guinea fowl. Any sudden noise, or the discharge of a gun, produces the 

 same effect. In the mean time, none are to be seen, unless it be at high 

 water; for when the tide is low, they universally secrete themselves among 

 the reeds, and you may walk past and even over them, without seeing a 

 single individual. Their flight through the reeds is exceedingly low ; and 

 shelter being abundant, is rarely extended far. They swim and dive with 

 great rapidity, and sometimes when wounded, they dive, and rising under the 

 gunwale of the boat, secrete themselves there, moving round as the boat moves, 

 until they have an opportunity of escaping unnoticed. They are feeble and de- 

 licate in every thing but the legs, which seem to possess great vigor and energy, 

 and their bodies being so remarkably thin, as to be less than an inch and a 

 quarter through transversely, they are enabled to pass between the reeds like 

 rats. When seen, they are almost constantly getting up the tail. 



These birds are also numerous near Detroit, in the lagoons, where another 

 species of reed grows of which they are fond. In New Jersey, where there 

 are no reeds, they are never to be found; but wherever the reeds are, there 

 the rails are sure to be in great numbers. 



In the United States are also found, the Virginian rail and the clapper 

 rail. 



ORDER XIV. — FINN ATIPEDES. 



Birds of this order have the bill middle-sized and straight; upper mandi- 

 ble slightly curved at the tip; legs of medium size; tarsi slender or com- 

 pressed ; three toes before and one behind, with rudiments of webs along 

 the toes ; hind toe articulated interiorly on the tarsus. 



THE CO OTi 



Is a well known bird. It weighs from twentv-four to twenty-eight ounces. 

 Wilson is inclined to believe that the American coot is a different species 

 from the European, from the circumstance that the membrane in the former 

 is of a chesnut color, instead of white ; though in other respects they seem 

 to be the same. In Pennsylvania it is called the mud-hen. The bald part 



' Fulica atra, Lin. The genus Fulica has the bill middle-sized, strong, conical, hroad 

 at the base ; the ridge projecting in front, and dilated into a naked plate; both mandibles 

 of the same length, the upper slightly curved, and reduced at the base, the lower form- 

 ing an angle ; nostrils lateral, in the middle of the bill, lonsritudinally cleft, half closed by 

 a membrane ; le?s long, slender, naked aliove the knee ; all the toes very long, connected 

 at their base, and furnished along their sides with scalloped membranes. 



t 



