CHAP XVIII.) DABCHICK—COOT. 149 
actions in the water. Where undisturbed, they soon become bold 
and confident. These little fellows used to swim close to me, 
and after looking up in my face with an arch cock of their tiny 
head, turn up their round sterns and dip under the water. 
They often remained so long under water, that the circles made 
in the calm pool from their last dive were quite obliterated from 
the surface before the saucy-looking little fellows would rise 
again, often in exactly the same spot, when they would look at 
me again, as if to be sure of who I was; then, turning half over 
in the water, they would scratch their neck with their curiously 
formed foot, shake their apology of a wing, and dip under 
again. 
One day my dog jumped into the water for a swim, and the 
motions of the birds were then very different. They dived 
rapidly to the other end of the pool, where they rose, shoving 
only the very tip of their bill, which I could distinguish by the 
small wave in the water made when it first came up. After 
remaining in this position for a short time, they gradually lifted 
up more and more of their head, till seeing that all danger was 
over and that the dog had left their pool, they rose entirely to 
the surface, and shaking their feathers resumed their usual atti- 
tudes, keeping, however, at a respectful distance and watching 
the dog. After the young ones were hatched and full grown 
they again disappeared, leaving us for the winter. How or where 
they went it is difficult to imagine. 
If the weather is tolerably open, the bald coot arrives here 
early in the spring. It is very difficult to make this bird fly, 
unless it happens to be surprised in the open part of the lake, 
when it darts off immediately to the rushes, where, diving and 
wading with great quickness, it remains so completely concealed 
that neither dog nor man can put it up again. Its young ones 
are like a ball of black down, but swim about and dive as 
cleverly as their parents. They build a very large nest amongst 
the rushes growing in the water, and sit very close. The coot 
has an ornamental appearance on a sheet of water, from their 
constant activity in swimming about, and their loud, wild cry 
adds an interest to the solitude of the Highland lake. 
The water-hen is another bird which deserves encouragement 
und protection, as they repay it by becoming tame and familiar, 
