The American Coot 



"MID HAUNTS OF COOT AND HERN" 



in the breeding season, the sound of their gulp- 

 ing call, pulque pulque pulque pulque, is the pre- 

 vailing note of the swamp. These notes are 

 rendered with the head close to the water, and 

 seem to afford a prodigious relief to the bird's 

 feelings. The Coot, on fatigue duty, is a very 

 prosy-looking fowl, for the bird ordinarily sits 

 half submerged, with lowered wings and tail 

 both sloping into and under the water; but the 

 Coot on dress parade is a very different-looking 

 fellow, albeit his uniform is the same. When 

 the ladies are looking, he sits high in the water; 

 the wing-tips are pointed obliquely upward; 

 the tail is held vertically or tilted forward ; and 

 two white patches of feathers, one on each side 

 of the tail, are flashed into view and carried prominently. 



Courtship is largely a matter of pursuit. In this both pursuer and 

 pursued rise, or only half rise, from the water, with much floundering and 

 splashing. And they proceed only a rod or two when both fall back ex- 

 hausted, the female usually well in advance. This is mere gallantry on the 

 part of the male, and exaggerated pretense on the part of both. When the 

 male is in earnest, the pursuit is carried on under water as well as above it. 

 Much time is spent by enamored couples in simply gazing into each other's 

 eyes. A pair will face each other, beak to beak, with necks stretched out 

 full length upon the water, and paddle about for minutes together in fas- 

 cinated circles. The hinder parts, meanwhile, are carried high like those 

 of a swan. This vis-ci-vis pose is also a menace on the part of rivals, and is 

 the inevitable preliminary of any cock fight. In this the birds appear to 

 depend upon nail more than upon tooth, for they lean back upon the water, 

 bracing with their wings, behind, and kick at each other most absurdly. 

 After such an episode, which the female, as likely as not, has interrupted, 



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