THE MOORHEN AND COOT. 341 



branches of the trees, and sits as safe and unconcerned 

 as the most active little Titmouse. This teaches us that 

 we must never be led by outward appearances alone in 

 forming an idea of a bird's habits or motions, for very 

 often the reverse of our conjectures is right. 



The Coot obtains its food in the daytime. You may 

 see other wild fowl dozing away their time, while the 

 Coots are busy feeding, either in the waters or on the 

 neighbouring grass lands. In the waters the Coot feeds 

 on the smaller fishes — a school of young roach or min- 

 nows is rapidly thinned in numbers. Besides fish, at 

 the bottom of the water are quantities of aquatic insects, 

 on which the Coot also feeds, for be it known he is an 

 expert diver : the tender shoots of the water plants and 

 their seeds are also eaten. When on the dry land, the 

 Coot eats great quantities of common meadow grass, 

 also the snails and worms lurking amongst it. Then, 

 too, when in the neighbourhood of the ocean, the vast 

 quantities of animal matter tenanting the deep and 

 thrown up by its ever restless waters are consumed. 

 Though the Coot occurs in such abundance in the winter 

 season, still but comparatively few of the birds remain 

 to breed, and those for the most part are the birds that 

 remain in their haunts throughout the year, and seldom 

 or never congregate with the migrants from other 

 lands. 



You rarely indeed find the nest of the Coot before 

 May, when the reeds and flags afford it abundant 

 shelter. Sometimes it is built on the dry land, amongst 

 the tangled reeds and grass clothing the bank, at others 

 it will be built amongst the rushes growing in the water, 

 sometimes its foundation being commenced under the 

 surface. Birds that build their nests in these situations 

 invariably make a large and bulky nest, and the Coot 



