224 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



minutes all alarm was past, and they gradually covered the 

 surface of the pond again. The body of the Coot is narrow, 

 and can be compressed so that, like a Rail, the bird can pass 

 between reeds and the rigid stems of water plants, where a 

 Duck with its wide flat body could not go. It can wade 

 readily also in much deeper water than the Rails. It rises 

 heavily, with much flapping of wings and paddling of feet, 

 but when once well in the air it flies rather better than the 

 Rails, rarely going far, however, except when migrating. 



The Coot feeds very largely on succulent vegetable matter 

 and seeds, as well as insects and other small forms of animal 

 life. 



Phalaropes. 



The great order Limicolae comprises what are commonly 

 called the shore birds, to distinguish them from the Ibises, 

 Storks, Herons, Cranes, Rails, etc., which are collectively 

 known as marsh birds. Such a distinction is merely arbitrary, 

 however, as some of the Limicolce rarely are seen on shore or 

 marsh, and others commonly frequent the marsh. 

 In our present system of classification the Phal- 

 aropes (family Phalaropodidas) come first, for 

 their feet are lobed (Fig. 12), somewhat like 

 those of the Coot but not so broadly. The 

 membrane attached to the toes is sometimes 

 ^^dPhlifrp?^ scalloped along the edge, and the tarsus (that 

 portion of the foot or so-called leg which con- 

 nects the toes with the next joint above) is flattened, like that 

 of the Grebes. They are small birds, with dense. Duck-like 

 plumage. In this family the female is much the larger and 

 handsomer, and does most of the wooing, while the male is 

 more modest and retiring, and is said to incubate the eggs 

 and rear the young. Two species migrate in numbers off the 

 New England coast, sometimes near shore, but usually many 

 miles from land, where they may be seen floating or swim- 

 ming like little Ducks, and feeding among floating sea-weed. 



