64 THE OSPREY. 



be prevented. As the rest of the lake closed up, more fowls would come to 

 this open place, and its freezing would be still longer delayed. 



This theory seems entirely reasonable to me. Mr. Clark visited this open 

 pool late at night, remaining until after ten o'clock, to see how the birds 

 behaved then. He found the open place literally packed full of birds, and a 

 great many more sitting on the ice near the pool. 



Mr. Clark reports seeing no coots after January 10, and no ducks after 

 February 7. 



The coot as an article of food: I have been very much interested in the 

 coot as an article of food. The opinion of those who have put themselves on 

 record in the books is almost unanimous that the coot is worthless as food. 

 And inquiry among my ornithological friends here in Washington resulted in 

 my finding only two or three who had ever tasted coot. The majority of them 

 seemed to regard eating coot very much as we regard eating crow, — a thing 

 not to be thought of! 



But my friends Dr. Fisher and Mr. William Palmer admit that they have 

 eaten coot and like it. They even say they regard coot as not at all inferior 

 to the famous canvas-back duck, and in this I agree with them fully. Coot, 

 particularly young ones, skinned and fried, or even old ones parboiled, then 

 baked, are quite as delicious as any duck I ever ate. 



It is, however, doubtless true that the delicacy of flavor, not only of the 

 coot, but also of the canvas-back and all other ducks, is largely determined by 

 the kinds of food they get. The wild celery ( Vallisnei'ia spiralis) is suffii- 

 ciently abundant in Lake Maxinkuckee to give to the coot frequenting that 

 lake a delicate flavor which has received high praise from all who are familiar 

 with it. 



Summing up, then, my observations concerning the coot as seen at Lake 

 Maxinkuckee, I would say that 



1. It is quite as aquatic in its habits as most ducks. 



2. It is a splendid diver, and dives regularly and habitually when feeding. 



3. It feeds preferably upon the winter stolons of the wild celery, but later 

 upon other parts of that plant and upon various species of Potamogeton, for 

 which it dives as deep as twenty -five feet. 



4. As an article of food, the coot is superior to most species of ducks. 



5. When feeding it is not the taciturn bird Nuttall would have us be- 

 lieve, but a very sociable, loquacious bird, constantly talking to its associates 

 day and night. 



6. It is nocturnal in its habits to some extent but perhaps not any more so 

 than the mallard, the bluebill and some other ducks. 



