82 CINEREOUS COOT. 
CINEREOUS COOT. (Fulica Americana.) 
PLATE LXXIII.—Fre. 1. 
Fulica Americana, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 704, 23.—Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 779, 5.—Cinereous 
Coot, Gen. Syn. iii. p. 279.—Peale’s Museum, No. 4322. 
FULICA AMERICAN A.—GMELIN.* 
Fulica Amerieana, Sab. Append. to Capt. Frank. Exp. p. 690.—Bonap. Synop. 
p. 338.—Fulica atra, Wilson’s List. 
Tus species makes its appearance in Pennsylvania about 
the 1st of October. Among the muddy flats and islands of 
the river Delaware, which are periodically overflowed, and 
which are overgrown with the reeds or wild oats or rushes, 
the coots are found. ‘They are not numerous, and are seldom 
* This description commences the ninth and supplementary volume 
of the original printed by Mr Ord, after the decease of Wilson, from his 
notes, The volume was published in 1814, and a second edition ap- 
peared in 1825, correcting several mistakes which had occurred in the first. 
Our present bird was there described as identical with that of Europe, 
and a detail of the habits of our native species given as belonging to 
it ; these Mr Ord has corrected. The distinctions, I believe, were first 
pointed out by Mr Sabine, in the Appendix to Captain Franklin’s 
Narrative, and I now add them in that gentleman’s words :— 
“They are of the same length, though there isa general inferiority in 
the size of the body, as well as of the legs, head, and bill of the American ; 
the bill is smaller, less thick and strong, and shorter by a quarter of an 
inch ; the callus, independent of the difference in colour in the American 
bird, extends only half an inch over the head, but in the European, above 
an inch ; the whole head is smaller ; the plumage, generally, is similar 
in colour and character ; the outer margin of the first primary feathers 
of the wing is more conspicuously marked with white, and there are a 
few white feathers on the upper edge of the wing ; the secondaries in 
‘both are tipped with white ; the principal difference in the plumage is, 
that in the American the feathers at the vent are quite black, and the 
under tail-coverts white ; in the European coot, these correspond with the 
rest of the plumage ; the legs are much more slender in the American 
bird ; the tarse of the European measures near two inches and a half, 
that of the American not quite two inches ; the toes are smaller in like 
proportion ; the middle toe, including the claw, of the European coot 
is three inches and three-quarters long ; of the American, three inches 
and one quarter only.”—Ep. 
J 
