142 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



with bluish terminally, a spot near the end of each mandible and the 

 frontal shield dark brown; belly uniform slaty plumbeous. Winter 

 adult : Similar, but frontal shield reduced in size, and the belly suffused 

 with whitish. Young : Most like winter plumage, but lower parts much 

 suffused with whitish, especially on throat and belly ; frontal shield rudi- 

 mentary, and bill, in life, dull flesh-color, tinged with olive-greenish, the 

 spots obsolete (dull light brownish in dried skins). Downy young: 

 Blackish, the head and neck ornamented with orange- or salmon-colored 

 crisp filamentous bristles, the upper parts more sparsely covered with 

 similar but paler (whitish or pale orange-buff) filaments ; bill orange- 

 red, the upper mandible tipped with black. Length 13.00-16.00, wing 

 7.25-7.60, culmen (to commencement of frontal shield) 1.25-1.60, tarsus 

 2.00-2.20, middle toe 2.45-2.65. Eggs 6-12, 1.91 X 1-32. Hob. "Whole of 

 North America, Middle America, and most of West Indies; north to 

 Greenland and Alaska, south to Veragua (and Trinidad ?). 



221. F. americana (Gmel.). American Coot. 

 b 1 . Frontal shield whitish (pale brownish in dried skins), like bill, oval or ellip- 

 tical, much wrinkled; bill more slender; otherwise, very similar to F. 

 americana. Hdb. Lesser Antilles (Guadeloupe and St. John's). 



F. caribsea Bidgw. Caribbean Coot. 1 



1 Fulica caribma Ridgw., Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. vii. Sept. VI, 1884, 359. 



