COOT. 



139 



down over the nest, and they thus form a perfect umbrella 

 or hood, which shelters it from view, and also keeps out 

 the rain. 



The number of eggs ranges from seven to fourteen in 

 one nest, and as we figure the egg of the natural size, and 

 from a very good specimen, we shall not describe it further. 

 In three weeks the young brood make their appearance, they 

 are covered with a dingy black down, with a reddish-brown 

 head ; they leave the nest as soon as they are dry and 

 follow their parents in the thickest parts of the rushes. 



On the least approach of danger they become silent, but 

 at other times they are incessantly calling out. The parents 

 express much care for their young ; the mother feeds them 

 while the father more generally watches for their safety. 

 When the weather is cold or raw, the young return to the 

 nest for a week or two to roost, and when a nest gets dis- 

 turbed, the eggs or young destroyed, the parents make in- 

 variably a new nursery and lay for the second time, but 

 hardly ever more than eight eggs. The flesh of the Coot 

 is not very good either in appearance or flavour, and 

 therefore unfrequently sold in the market for the purposes of 

 food. 



The dimensions of the adult Coot are as follows : entire 

 length sixteen inches ; the wing, from the carpus to the 

 tip, eight inches ; the beak measures one inch ten lines ; 

 the tarsus two inches two lines ; the middle toe three inches 

 three lines. 



The head and neck are black ; the back, wings, wing- 

 coverts, tail, and all the upper parts black, with a tinge 

 of deep ash-colour ; the under parts are deep ash-grey ; on 

 the front of the head is a white patch of a substance like 

 kid leather ; the beak is white, tinged with carmine ; eyes 

 pure carmine-red ; the legs and toes are cinereous-ash, with 



