WATER BIRDS. 163 
Fig. 45. Nest of Florida Gallinule. 
From photograph by Thomas L. Hankinson. 
85. Coot. Fulica americana Gmel. (221) 
Synonyms: Mud Hen, White-billed Mud Hen, Crow Duck, Blue Peter.—Fulica atra, 
Wils., 1825.—Fulica americana, Gmel., 1789, and of authors generally. 
Figure 46. 
The scalloped membrane or web along the sides of the toes is distinctive, 
but even when swimming the bird may be known from the Gallinule, its 
nearest relative, by the milk-white bill and the white patch, apparently 
across the wing-tip, formed by the white tips of the secondaries. 
Distribution.—North America, from Greenland and Alaska southward 
to the West Indies and Veragua. 
An abundant bird during the migrations, on all the waters of the state, 
and breeding in all but the southern counties, possibly in all. According to 
Swales (Bull. Mich. Orn. Club, I, 31) it nests abundantly on Grassy Island 
in the Detroit River, just below Detroit. It also nests in numbers at St. 
Clair Flats, according to the same authority. Dr. Gibbs states that he has 
never found it nesting in Kalamazoo county, although the Gallinule nests 
there commonly. Cole and Hankinson found it nesting abundantly on 
Chandler’s Marsh, Ingham county, and it nests commonly in all suitable 
places northward to Lake Superior. 
While it resembles the Gallinule much in all its habits, it frequents 
more open water than that bird, swimming most of the time, and apparently 
not attempting to run rapidly through the weeds and coarse vegetation, 
preferring to spend most of its time where it can swim. It is quicker to 
take wing, flies better and farther, and has a characteristic way of ‘‘patter- 
ing” over the water when taking wing, apparently trying to run on the 
surface while flapping vigorously, the wings themselves beating the water 
