FULICA AMERICANA : AMERICAN COOT. 295 



where the water was about knee-deep ; it was a bulky 

 affair, resting securely on a mass of reedy debris. The 

 nest itself was built of the same materials, heaped 

 up and little hollowed ; it was about fifteen inches in 

 diameter, and half as high. The reed-stems appeared 

 to have been bitten by the bird into short pieces ; 

 there was no special lining. This nest was a floating 

 one, in the sense that the platform of broken-down 

 reeds upon which it was built rested on the water ; but 

 it was perfectly secure, raised out of the wet, and though 

 loosely constructed, could be lifted up intact. It con- 

 tained eleven eggs, nearly ready to hatch. They 

 measured from 1.75 to 2.00 in length, by 1.20 to 1.35 in 

 breadth, exhibiting the usual variation in contour as well 

 as in absolute size. The shape is much like that of an 

 average hen's egg — perhaps rather more pointed. The 

 ground is clear clay-color, uniformly and minutely dotted 

 all over with innumerable specks of dark brown ; a few 

 of the bolder markings are of the size of a pin's head, 

 but the greater number are mere points. But the eggs 

 are not always so uniforpily and finely dotted as those of 

 this set were ; sometimes the spots being aggregated 

 into blotches of some size, or tending chiefly to wreath 

 around the larger end. Various other nests examined 

 contained an average of ten eggs ; some were built just 

 like the one described, while others were on the ground, 

 in comparatively dry spots around the margin of the 

 pools, hidden in rank grass ; in all the materials and 

 mode of construction were much the same." (B. N. W., 

 1874, p. 542.) 



