222 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



Eggs. — Eight to sixteen, 1.75 to 2 by 1.20 to 1.35, glossy, clay color, spotted 

 and dotted with dark brown and neutral tints. 



Season. — Uncommon migrant; early April to mid May, mid September to 

 December; a few breed. 



Range. — North America. Breeds from central British Columbia, southern 

 Mackenzie, Manitoba, Quebec and New Brunswick south to northern 

 Lower California, Texas, Tennessee and New Jersey, and also in south- 

 ern Mexico, southern West Indies and Guatemala; winters from south- 

 ern British Columbia and Virginia south to Colombia; casual in Alaska, 

 Greenland, Labrador and Bermuda. 



History. 

 This is not one of the birds commonly called Coots in New- 

 England, which are really Scoters or Surf Ducks; neverthe- 

 less, it is the real Coot, — the only bird entitled to the name. 

 This species was formerly one of the most abundant water- 

 fowl on the fresh waters of North America. When Coots are 

 feeding on the wild celery or on the rice fields of the south 

 they are by no means despicable as a table delicacy; but ordi- 

 narily they are not considered fit to eat. Nevertheless, they 

 have been slaughtered without mercy. Audubon says that a 

 hunter on Lake Barataria killed eighty at one shot. It was 

 not uncommon in the old days in Florida to see a sportsman 

 shoot into a mass of Coots, killing and wounding from twenty 

 to forty birds, just to see the effect of the shot; not a bird was 

 even picked up. As the supply of wild-fowl was depleted, the 

 settlers began potting Coots for food in this manner wherever 

 these birds were numerous, and "fried Coot" soon became a 

 common dish on the settlers' table. The demand for them 

 now has decreased their numbers until, where they were 

 formerly exceedingly abundant, they are now only common, 

 and where they were formerly common, as in southern New 

 England, they are becoming rare. Mr. Robert O. Morris 

 records the species as common at Springfield, Mass. (1901). 

 Dr. Glover M. Allen, in his list of the Aves (1909), gives it as 

 an uncommon migrant in Maine, New Hampshire and Ver- 

 mont; a rare spring and uncommon fall migrant in Massa- 

 chusetts; and a common migrant, mainly in fall, in Rhode 

 Island and Connecticut. It is, as he states, occasionally 



