American Coot 99 
difficulty, but when fairly in the air fly quite steadily 
and strongly, though they always prefer to avoid danger 
by hiding in the reeds. They are not very good divers. 
The American Coot nests in colonies among growing 
reeds in shallow or sometimes in deeper water. The 
nests which are only a few feet apart, are massive 
structures of interlaced weeds and rushes, generally 
floating and anchored among the growing reeds, and 
high enough out of the water to keep the eggs dry. 
The eggs, from eight to twelve in number, are pale drab 
fairly uniformly spotted and dotted with dark brown. 
A clutch of eight taken by I. C. Hall, May 26th, 1902, 
near Greeley, and presented to the Colorado College 
Museum, are rather rough and pointed, and measure 
1:95 x 1°3. Gale found fresh eggs between June 5th and 
20th about Loveland, while Henshaw states that by 
June 22nd they had hardly finished laying at San 
Luis Lakes. 
ORDER LIMICOLA. 
The birds included in this order are chiefly shore and 
marsh haunting forms, such as Snipes, Sandpipers, 
Plovers and their allies. 
The members of the order are characterized by a 
bill which is usually slender, and has a groove on 
each side with the nostril-opening near its base; the 
wings are generally long and there are always eleven 
primaries ; the legs, too, are generally long and have the 
lower part of the tibio-tarsus naked ; the toes are usually 
short and are three or four in number; the hind toe, if 
present, is jointed well up above the others; the 
anterior toes are fully webbed or not webbed, but most 
frequently partially webbed. The young birds when 
hatched, are clothed with down, and able to run about 
almost at once. 
H 2 
