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 whea 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 anda 
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.—PINNATIPEDES. 
Brrps 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. : 
PAE. COO T! 
Is a well known bird. It weighs from twenty-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 
1 Fulica atra, Lix. The genus Flulica has the bill middle-sized, strong, conical, broad 
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 hase, the lower form- 
ing an angle; nostrils lateral, in the middle of the bill, longitudinally cleft, half closed by 
a membrane ; legs long, slender, naked above the knee; all the toes very long, connected 
at heir base, and furnished along their sides with scalloped membranes. 
