CINEREOUS COOT. 8s 
The young females very much resemble the young males ; 
all the difference which I have been enabled to perceive is as 
follows :—Breast and shoulders, cinereous; markings on the 
bill, less ; upper parts of the head, in some specimens, mottled ; 
and being less in size. 
The lower parts of these birds are clothed with a thick 
down, and, particularly between the thighs, covered with close 
fine feathers. The thighs are placed far behind, are fleshy, 
strong, and bare above the knees. 
The gizzard resembles a hen’s, and is remarkably large 
and muscular. That of the bird which has been described 
was filled with sand, gravel, shells, and the remains of aquatic 
plants. 
Buffon describes the mode of shooting coots in France, par- 
ticularly in Lorraine, on the great pools of Tiaucourt and of 
Indre; hence we are led to suppose that they are esteemed as 
an article of food. But with us, who are enabled, by the abun- 
dance and variety of game, to indulge in greater luxuries in 
that season when our coots visit us, they are considered as of 
no account, and are seldom eaten. 
The European ornithologists represent the membrane on 
the forehead of the F'ulzca atra as white, except in the breed- 
ing season, when it is said to change its colour to pale red. 
In every specimen of the cinereous coot which I have seen, ex- 
cept one, the membrane of the forehead was of a dark chestnut 
brown colour. The one alluded to was a fine adult male, shot 
in the Delaware, at Philadelphia, on the 11th of May: the 
membrane was of a pure white; no white marking beneath 
the eye ; legs and feet of a bright grass green. 
In Wilson’s figure of the coot accompanying this volume 
there are some slight errors; the auriculars are designated, 
which should not have been done, as they are not distinguish- 
able from the rest of the plumage of the head and neck, which 
is all of a fine satiny texture; and the outline of the bill is 
not correct. 
Latham states that the common European coot (£ atra) is 
