404 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



[170.] 1. Fulica Americana. (Gmelin.) American Coot. 



Genus, Fulica, Linn. 



Common Coot {Fulica atra). Wils., ix., p. 61, pi, 73, f. 1. 



Fulica Americana. (Gmel.) Sab. Frankl. Joum., p. 690. Bonap. Cat., No. 270. 



Whiskeychawn-weesheep. Ckee Indians. 



The small grassy lakes that skirt the Saskatchewan plains are much frequented 

 by this Coot, which in its manners exactly resembles the closely allied European 

 species*. It was not seen by us near Hudson's Bay, nor higher than the fifty- 

 fifth parallel. Mr. Swainson has obtained specimens from the Table-land of 

 Mexico. It is observed to arrive in the fur-countries always in the night-time. 

 The crops of those we killed were filled with fine sand. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a male, killed on the Saskatchewan, May 13, 1827. 



Colour. — Head and neck velvet-black. Fore part of the back, scapulars, and wing 

 coverts blackish-grey; tertiaries, tips of the scapulars, rump, and tail coverts, clove-brown, 

 with a greenish-tinge. Quills, tail, and vent pitch-black; tips of the secondaries and under 

 tail coverts white. Under plumage lead-grey. Bill pale horn colour, with a chestnut ring 

 near its tip ; frontal callus dead white, terminating superiorly in a rhomboidal chestnut- 

 coloured spot. Legs dull bluish-green. 



Form typical. Wings as long as the rounded or graduated tail, which consists of fourteen 

 feathers f. 



Dimensions 

 Of the male. 





Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. 



Lin, 



Length, total 



16 



6 



Length of bill to rictus . 



1 



5 



Length of middle nail 







7 



,, of tail 



2 







,, of naked thigh 



. 



9 



„ of hind toe 



. 



11 



„ of wing 



. 7 



6 



,, of tarsus 



2 



1 



„ of its nail . 



. 



4 



,, of bill and callus 



2 







„ of middle toe . 



. 2 



11 









Other males are upwards of an inch shorter than the preceding, and they vary in the 

 extent and depth of the blackish-grey of the dorsal aspect. — R. 



* Mr. Sabine gives in detail the specific differences between the two, in the work above cited. 



y Cuvier says that the tail contains sixteen feathers ; but in a considerable number of specimens which I examined, 

 I found but fourteen, and in some instances only ten or twelve. — R. 



