84 CINEREOUS COOT. 
in the fresh-water ponds situated in the vicinity of the river 
St Juan or St John, in East Florida; but I did not see them 
in the river. ‘The food which they obtain in these places must 
be very abundant and nutritious, as the individuals which I 
shot were excessively fat. One male specimen weighed twenty- 
four ounces avoirdupois. They associate with the common 
gallinule (Gallinula chloropus), but there is not, perhaps, one 
of the latter for twenty of the former. 
The cinereous coot is sixteen inches in length, and twenty- 
eight in extent ; bill, one and a half inch long, white, the 
upper mandible slightly notched near the tip,and marked across 
with a band of chestnut, the lower mandible marked on each 
side with a squarish spot of the like colour, edged on the lower 
part with bright yellow or gamboge, thence to the tip, pale 
horn colour ; membrane of the forehead, dark chestnut brown ; 
irides, cornelian red ; beneath the eyes, in most specimens, a 
whitish spot ; the head and neck are of a deep shining black, 
resembling satin ; back and scapulars, dirty greenish olive ; 
shoulders, breast, and wing-coverts, slate blue ; the under parts 
are hoary ; vent, black ; beneath the tail, pure white ; primaries 
and secondaries, slate, the former tipt with black, the latter 
with white, which does not appear when the wing is closed ; 
outer edges of the wings, white; legs and toes, yellowish 
green, the scalloped membrane of the latter, lead colour ; 
middle toe, including the claw, three inches and three-quarters 
long. 
The bird from which the foregoing description was taken 
was shot in the Delaware, below Philadelphia, the 29th of 
October 1813. It was an old male, an uncommonly fine 
specimen, and weighed twenty-three ounces avoirdupois. It 
is deposited in Peale’s Museum. 
The young birds differ somewhat in their plumage, that of 
the head and neck being of a brownish black ; that of the breast 
and shoulders, pale ash ; the throat, grey or mottled ; the bill, 
bluish white ; and the membrane on the forehead considerably 
smaller. 

