THE COOT. 



Fulica atra, Linnaeus. 

 Plate 59. 



This species is common in the British Islands, for the most part haunting wide 

 sheets of sheltered inland water, where it can nest amongst the cover of reeds and 

 bull-rushes, but in winter, under stress of weather, it may often be found on the 

 salt-water estuaries of the coast, where it is said to feed on the sea-grass. 



The nest is a large, piled-up structure of dead flags, reed-stems, or sedges, and 

 contains from seven to ten eggs, yellowish-grey in ground-colour, marked with 

 small dark brown specks. 



The Coot is an expert diver, and obtains a large part of its food, consisting of 

 shoots and buds of aquatic plants, insects and molluscs, under water, as well as slugs 

 and worms on land. 



The call-note is a loud, clear cry. 



This species is still plentiful on the Broads of Norfolk, but in old days appears 

 to have been much more numerous in those waters. 



Sir Thomas Browne, describing how these birds defend themselves against their 

 enemies, says in his Notes and Letters on the Natural History of Norfolk (Jarrold 

 and Sons, p. 15), "I have seen them vnite from all parts of the shoare in strange 

 numbers when if the Kite stoopes neare them they will fling up [and] spred such a 

 flash of water up with there wings that they will endanger the Kite." 



No doubt the "flash of water" was thrown up by their large lobed feet as 

 described by Lord Lilford in his work on British Birds as follows : "In Epirus, 

 where the Coot is exceedingly abundant, I several times witnessed the curious 

 manner in which these birds defend themselves from the assaults of feathered 

 enemies by gathering together in a compact mass and simultaneously throwing up 

 a sheet of water with their feet when the raptor made its stoop. On one occasion 

 of this sort, the assailant, an adult White-tailed Eagle, was so thoroughly drenched, 

 that it had great difficulty in flapping along to a tree at not more than a hundred 

 yards from the point of attack." 



85 



