652 



AVES— CRESTED GREBE. 



of the head, which in the water-hen is red, in the coot is white. The upper 

 parts of its plumage are black, the breast and belly white. As the coot is a 

 larger bird than the water-hen, which it much resembles, it is always seen 

 in larger streams, and more remote from mankind. It there makes a nest 

 of such weeds as the stream supplies, and lays them among the reeds, float- 

 ing on the surface, and rising and falling with the water. The reeds among 

 which it is built keep it fast, so that it is seldom Avashed into the middle of 

 the stream. But if this happens, which is sometimes the case, the bird sits 



in her nest, like a mariner in his boat, and steers, with her legs, her cargo 

 into the nearest harbor ; there, having attained her port, she continues to 

 sit in great tranquillity, regardless of the impetuosity of the current ; and, 

 though the water penetrates her nest, she hatches her eggs in that wet 

 condition. The coot is by no means a rare bird in Britain, where it resides 

 permanently, though with the seasons it changes its residence. It is rather 

 a timid bird, very inert, and feeds in the evening, upon fishes, insects, seeds, 

 and herbage. In Madagascar there is a coot with a red comb like a cock. 



THE CRESTED GREBE. i 



This bird is about the size of a duck. Its bill, that part especially 

 towards the head, is of a reddish color, and is somewhat more than two 

 inches in length. On the top of the head and neck is a beautiful crest 

 of feathers, those on the neck appearing like a collar or ruff, and seeming a 

 good deal bigger than they really are ; those on the top of the head are black, 

 those on the sides of the neck are of a reddish or cinereous color ; the back 



^ Podiceps cristafuSjLiATH. The genus Podiceps has the bill middle size, straight, 

 hard, compressed, in the form of an elongated and pointed cone ; tip of the upper mandi- 

 ble slightly inclined ; nostrils lateral, concave, oblong, closed behind hy a membrane, open 

 in front, and pervious; legs long, placed far backwards ; tarsi much compressed; fore 

 toes much depressed, connected at their base, and furnished with a simple lobe ; hind toe 

 compressed and scalloped ; claws broad, much depressed ; no tail ; wings short. 



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