84 birds of illinois. 



Subfamily FULICIN^.— The Coots. 



C. Fnlioa. fTostrils, and proportionate length of toes and tarsus, as in GalKnula; 

 toes bordered with a very wide, scalloped, lateral membrane; inner posterior face 

 of tarsus covered with small scales, as in Gallinula.' 



Subfamily FULICIN2E. 

 Genus FUliICA Linnaeus. 



Fulica LlNN. S. N. ed. 10, 1758. 152; ed. 12, i, 1766, 257. Type, F. atra Linn. 



Chab. Very similar to (raHmuto, but the toes margined by a broad, deeply scalloped 

 lateral membrane. Bill shorter than the head, straight, strong, compressed, and advamoing 

 into the feathers of the forehead, where it freauently forms a wide and somewhat project- 

 ing frontal plate; nostrils ina groove, with a large membrane, near the middle of the bill. 

 Wings rather short, second and third auills usually longest; tail very short; tarsus robust, 

 shorter than the middle toe, with very distinct transverse scales : toes long, each having 

 semi-circular lobes, larger on the inner side; hind toe rather long, lobed. 



Almost the only difference between '^aHca and GalKnula consists in the single character 

 of the toes, as pointed out above. The two genera are, however, auite distinct, since there 

 appears to be no species known that is intermediate in the character of the feet. 



Fulica americana Gmel. 



AMEBICAN COOT. 



Popular synonyms. Mud-hen; White-biUed, or Ivory-billed, Mud-hen; Grow Duck. 



Fulica americana Gmel. 8. N. i,pt. ii, 1788, 704.— Sw. & BioH. F. B.-A. ii, 1831, 404.— NniT. 



Man. ii, 1834,229.— Aud. Orn.vBiog. iii, 1835, 291; v, 1839. 568;, Synop. 1839, 212; B. 



Am. V, 1842, 138. pi. 305.— Oass. in Baird's B. N. Am. 1858, 751 .— Baied, Cat. N. Am. B 



1859, No. 559. —OOTIEB, Key, 1872, 275; Check List, 1873, No. 474; 2d ed. 1882, No. 686; 



Birds N. W. 1874, 541.— Eidgw. Nom. N. A. B. 1881, No. 580; Man. N. Am. B. 1887, 142.— 



A. 0. U. Check List, 1886, No. 221. 

 Fulica wilsoni Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii, 1824, 236. 

 Fulica atra yfiLB. Am. Orn. ix, 1825, pi. 73, fig. 1 (nee Linn.). 



Hab. The whole of North America, Middle America, and West Indies; north to Green- 

 land and Alaska, south to Veragua and Trinidad. 



8p. Chab. Adult: General color uniform slate-color or slaty plumbeous, the head and 

 neck and anterior central portion of the crissum black; lateral and posterior portions of the 

 crissum, edge of wing, and tips of secondai;ies white. (In winter the belly suffused with 

 whitish.) Bill milk-white, more bluish terminally, each mandible with a spot of dark brown 

 near the end, bordered anteriorly with a more or less distinct bar of reddish chestnut; 

 frontal shield dark chestnut, or liver-brown, the oulmen just in front of this tinged with 

 greenish yellow; iris bright crimson; legs bright yellowish green, the tibise tinged behind 

 and above with orange-red; toes' light bluish gray, tinged with yellowish green on scutellte 

 of basal phalanges.? Toung: Similar, but lower parts more gray, and much suffused. 



' A South American genus. Porphyriops Puoheban, belonging to the GallinulinsB, is 

 much like O-aUinula, but has the lateral margin to the toes more decidedly developed the 

 gonys very short, and much ascending terminally, the culmen very straight and the front- 

 al shield small and very pointed, 



' Fresh colors of an adult male kiUed at Wheatland, Indiana, April 16, 1881. 



