BIRDS FOUND IN BAYOUS AND MARSHES 107 



221. AMERICAN COOT.— Fulica americana. 

 (Common names : Mud-hen ; Blue Peter.) 

 Family : The Rails, Gallinules, and Coots. 



Length: 15.25. 



Adults: Dark bluish slate, nearly black on head and neck ; under parts 

 paler ; edge of wing white ; bill white ; frontal plate, and spots ou 

 bill near end, brown ; legs and feet greenish ; toes with scalloped flaps. 



Downy Young : Upper parts rusty black ; under parts white ; head and 

 neck with orange-colored hair-like feathers, and upper parts with pale 

 yellow hair-like feathers among the down ; bill red, tipped with black. 



Geographical Distribution : North America. 



Breeding Range: Breeds locally through the United States, British 

 Columbia, and Canada. 



Breeding Season : April, May, and June. 



Nest: Of grass and reeds ; among the flags or tall marsh grass. 



Eggs: 8 to 16; cream-colored, speckled with dark chocolate. Size 

 1.89 X 1.42. 



Although so closely resembling the Florida gallinule 

 in appearance, the Coots may be easily distinguished 

 from them by their white bills. They are much more 

 social and are better swimmers than the gallinules, 

 gathering in companies morning and evening in the 

 shallow water at the edge of a marsh, to feed upon the 

 larvae of water insects and small crustaceans, which they 

 obtain by diving. They like best, however, to pick up 

 their food from the slime at the border of a mud flat 

 or low marshy place, and here they take their newly 

 hatched bantlings. The young are covered with down 

 of a rusty black color above and white beneath, with 

 pale yellow hair-like feathers sprinkled through it. Their 

 bills, unlike those of the parents, are red. They some- 

 times stray near a farmyard and may be picked up easily, 

 as they seem stupefied with fear. 



