The Coot. ^ 43 



feet are dark green, as are the membranous expansions from the sides of the toes. 

 The length of the bird from the beak to the extremity of the tail is eighteen 

 inches. Partially and wholly white varieties have occurred. 



The flesh of the Coot is very indifferent eating, though in demand in certain 

 localities. Lord Lilford, in his " Birds of Northamptonshire," informs us that :■ — 

 " The Church of Rome holds that this fowl is fish, and permits Coots to be eaten 

 on fast-days and during Lent, so that in the countries that border the western 

 Mediterranean these birds will always fetch at least the cost of a charge of powder 

 and shot. The most I can say of the flesh of these birds is that it is eatable 

 when nothing better is to be had." 



The Coot nests usually amidst a mass of flags and rushes, collecting together 

 a large mass of reeds and water plants that are capable of floating with the rise 

 and fall of the water. Mr. Oswin Lee describes, in a very interesting manner, the 

 fact that the Coot occasionally removes its eggs from one place to another. He 

 writes as follows : — " I have on two occasions observed the Coot remove its eggs 

 from the nest. The first occasion was on the advent of a high flood. While 

 fishing one day in a pretty heavy and rising stream on the Forth, I saw a Coot 

 swimming to the shore from a small island of reeds carrying something in its 

 bill and pressed against its breast. On going closer I found it was an egg. I 

 saw her carry four eggs to a rough nest on the bank before the nest in the patch 

 of reeds was submerged. I have reason to believe that the young birds were 

 safel}' hatched out from the new nest. On the other occasion the rats had carried 

 off several of the eggs from a Coot's nest on the banks of a small pond at home, 

 and I saw the old Coot carrying an egg, held in her bill and supported on her 

 breast, to an overhanging rhododendron, on a small island near. On investigation 

 I found three Coot's eggs in an old Water-hen's nest ; the bird, however, did not 

 succeed in hatching them out. 



From seven to twelve eggs are usually laid by the Coot, sometimes as many 

 as fourteen, though nine is an average clutch. They are pale bufif — very nearly 

 white — in ground colour, spotted pretty evenly all over with small very dark brown 

 specks, varying from the size of a pin's head to tiny dots, and in some cases 

 there are a few greyish under-markings. They differ very considerably in size, 

 even in the same clutch, and vary in length from 2'3 to 2'o inches, and in breadth 

 from I "5 to i"i inches. They are quite unlike the eggs of any other British Bird. 



Young in down are black, some of the filaments on the head and neck being 

 tipped with white and red, the tip of the bill is bluish-white, with a black spot 

 on the point, the base of the bill is scarlet, shading into orange on the face, and 

 there is a bluish stripe above each eye extending to the ear." 



