THE COMMON COOT. 333 



hand : the hen tended them with the greatest care. Mr. Darragh 

 (curator of the Belfast Museum), when visiting the two lakes at 

 Hillsborough Park, on the 10th of June, 1845, saw at one of 

 them two nests, having each five eggs, far advanced in incuba- 

 tion j at the other lake were nests also, but the eggs had been 

 taken from them by the gamekeeper, under the impression that 

 the coots disturb the wild ducks which are abundant there, 

 and are captured in great numbers during winter for Lord 

 Downshire's table. On one of the lakes, having no trees or 

 shrubs projecting over its surface, the nests were built in rushes, 

 and composed of grasses and other plants. On the other, par- 

 tially surrounded by woody thickets, they were placed, like the 

 nests of waterhens, upon branches hanging over the lake, and 

 composed of sticks, forming heaps, from twelve to eighteen 

 inches high : some of the sticks were an inch and half in thick- 

 ness. They were supposed to have been constructed from the old 

 nests of herons, which had been blown into the lake. In the 

 county of Wexford, Mr. Poole once found three eggs worked up 

 into the substance of a coot's nest, so as to leave scarcely any 

 of their upper surface visible ; and it was a matter of no little 

 difficulty to remove them without breaking; above the three, 

 eight eggs were disposed in the usual manner. A waterhen, 

 which made a nest on one of that gentleman's ponds, after com- 

 pleting the foundation, deposited at least one egg on it, and 

 proceeded — using grass and rushes — with the elevation of the 

 structure. The first egg having been thus covered up, the usual 

 number was laid on the grassy lining. 



It is remarked by Mr. Selby, that " the coots in the north of 

 England and in Scotland regularly quit their breeding-stations 

 in autumn ; and that after the month of October not an indivi- 

 dual is to be seen in their summer haunts " (vol. ii. p. 194). 

 Sir Wm. Jardine observes, that in the south of Scotland " a 

 straggling few only remain during mild winters" ('Brit. Birds/ 

 vol. hi. p. 345). In Ireland, where the winters are less severe 

 than in Great Britaiu, these birds remain constantly about their 

 summer quarters unless hard frost sets hi, when they are driven 



