124 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



Hab. — Temperate and tropical America from Canada to Brazil and Chili. 



Xest, ajnass of broken, rotten reed.s and rushes, with a slight hollow in the 

 centre ; it is seldom much above water level, and often afloat, but is fastened to 

 the sedges. 



Eggs, ten to twelve, brownish-buff, thickly spotted with reddish-brown. 



This is a comroon summer resident, breeding in suitable places 

 throughout Southern Ontario. Near Hamilton it is quite common, a 

 few pairs generally spending the summer in the Waterdown creek, 

 and also in the Dundas marsh. Its retired haunts are seldom 

 invaded during the summer months, for the mosquitoes form a bar to 

 the intrusion of visitors, and its flesh not being in demand for the 

 table, it is not much disturbed. 



.Southern Ontario seems to be the northern limit of its habitat. 

 It is not mentioned among the birds of 3Iauitoba, neither have I 

 heard of it appearing elsewhere in the north. 



Like most of its class, it arrives in 3Iay and leaves in September. 



Subfamily FULICIXuSl. 



Genus FULICA Lixx.eus. 



FULICA AMERICAXA Gmel. 



•S7. American Coot. (221) 



Dark slate, paler or grayish below, blackening on the head and neck, tinned 

 with olive on the back ; crissum, whole edge of wing, and top of the secondaries 

 white; bill, white or flesh-colored, marked with reddish-black near the end; 

 feet, dull olivaceous. Young: — .Similar, paler and duller. Length, about 14; 

 wing, 7-.S; tail, 2; bill, from the gape, IJ-U; tarsus, about 2; middle toe and 

 claw, aljout 3. 



H.\B. — Xorth America, from Greenland and Alaska southward to \Yest 

 Indies and Central America. 



Xest, of vegetable rubbish from the marsh, often afloat and fastened to the 

 rushes like the Grebes, but sometimes on dry ground Lack from the water. 



Eggs, ten to twelve, clear clay color, dotted minutely with dark brown. 



This species is very generally distributed in suitable places through- 

 out Ontario, and also in the XorbhAVest. It breeds abundantlv at 

 St. Clair, but at Hamilton is only a migratory visitor in sprino- and 

 fall. They are hardy birds, often arriving in spring before the ice is 

 quite away, and again lingering late in the fall, as if unwilling to 

 depart. They are sometimes mistaken for ducks by amateur gunners, 

 and in this way a few lose their lives, but except in such cases they ' 



