PECULIARITIES OF THE COOT 147 



Creek, the man in the bow ready for the next "big, old 'gator" 

 found sunning himself at the edge of the saw-grass, up would 

 go three or four slaty-blue birds of the size of bantam hens. 

 With feeble flight, and feet pattering on the water to help 

 along, they would fly ahead of the boat in a most offensively 

 ostentatious manner. Of course any old alligator knows that 

 a scared Coot means a boat; and since every boat is known 

 to be loaded, the natural sequence of a frightened Coot is 

 the bottom of the creek. 



The foot of the Coot is very curiously formed. It looks 

 as if originally it had been fully webbed, but some one in 

 sportive mood took a pair of scissors, cut out the centre of 

 the web and cut deep scallops in the web along each side of 

 each toe. The foot, therefore, is half webbed — an excellent 

 arrangement for running on water when the wings lend their 

 assistance. This bird never rises on the wing without a pre- 

 liminary run on the water of from fifty to one hundred and 

 fifty feet. It swims and dives quite well, but as a rule it 

 prefers to live as do the rails and gallinules, in the edges of 

 heavy marsh vegetation, where it can pick up its living of 

 buds, blossoms, seeds, aquatic insects and snails, and also hide 

 from its enemies. 



As yet the Coot is not considered a "game bird," and is 

 not slaughtered for food; but, once let the evil eye of the 

 epicure fall with favor upon this bird — or any other — and its 

 doom will be sealed. 



The distribution of this species is given as "from Green- 

 land and Alaska southward to the West -Indies." 



