238 THE Birps Asour Us. 
England States, and yet the time they are absent 
from the Middle States is quite short, for they are 
seen early in April and often late in November. In 
September, or perhaps mid-August, the coot begins to 
become common in the Delaware Valley, and many 
tarry through our 
Indian summer in 
November, if we 
have one; but they 
do not all desert 
the Middle States 
in the early spring. 
They breed on 
Crosswicks Creek, in Burlington County, New Jersey, 
and have done so for years ; and during the past sum- 
mer (1893) I observed a pair on the Delaware River 
in the early part of July, and saw others in the first 
few days of August. The nest of the coot is made 
of reeds and placed among them, being safely secured 
to the growing stems, but not, as has been stated, so 
fixed that it rose and fell with the tide. 
Coots, as I have observed them in New Jersey, 
are both diurnal and nocturnal, always prefer deep 
water, frequent mill-ponds, are not shy, and do not 
leave the water except by flight, or very rarely. Oc- 
casionally they wander up ditches leading into the 
creeks, and so get farther inland than usual. If sur- 
prised, they dive and swim down the ditch with in- 
credible velocity, and soon find their way into the 
open water. As an article of food coots are abso- 
lutely worthless. 
Coot. 
