292 AiMERICAN COOT. 



few steps, all rose and flew oft' with speed towards the river, mounted high 

 in the air, came curving over me, their legs hanging behind, their wings 

 producing a constant whir, and at length alighted on a narrow channel 

 between the shore, where I was, and a small island. Following them 

 with caution, I got sufficiently near to some of them to be able to see them 

 leap from the water to seize the young leaves of the willows that overhung 

 the shores. While swimming, they moved with ease, although not with 

 much speed, and used a constantly repeated movement of the head and 

 neck, corresponding with that of the feet. Now, twenty or thirty of them 

 would close their ranks, and swim up the stream in a lengthened body, 

 when they would disperse, and pick up the floating substances, not one of 

 them diving all the time. On firing at a large group of them that had ap- 

 proached me, they started ofl^ in various directions, patting the water with 

 their feet, and rushing with extended wings, for thirty or forty yards, 

 but without actually flying. After this, they made towards the brushy 

 shores, and disappeared for about a quarter of an hour. The rest of the 

 birds, which were a few hundred yards off*, scarcely took notice of the re- 

 port of the gun ; and before I left the place, they had returned to the 

 shore, and walked into another savannah, where they probably remained 

 until night. The next morning not a single Coot could I find while look- 

 ing for them, for several miles along the river, and I concluded that they 

 had left the place, and continued their migratory journey northward, this 

 being about the beginning of the time of their general departure. 



Whilst at General Hernandez's, in East Florida, I found the Coot 

 abundant in every ditch, bayou, or pond. This was in December 1831, 

 and in the next month I saw great flocks of them near the plantation of 

 mv friend John Bullow, Esq. Whilst on a visit to Spring Garden 

 sprino-s, at the head of the St John's River, I observed them to be equally 

 abundant along the grassy margins of the lagoons and lakes. On my re- 

 turn from the upper parts of that river to St Augustine, on the 28th 

 February, I saw large flocks of them already moving northward. They, 

 had suddenly become shy, and would rise before our boat, at a distance 

 of a hundred yards or so, with apparently scarcely any difficulty, and fly 

 in loose flocks at a considerable height, half a mile or more at a time, 

 and without uttering a note. Indeed, the only sound I ever heard these 

 birds utter, is a rough guttural note, somewhat resembling cnick, cracky 

 which they use when alarmed, or when chasing each other on the water in 

 anger. I am doubtful whether our Coot cackles and cries by night and 



