characteristic indolence of their furtive nature. We now see them abroad, 

 accompanied by their more active and incautious offspring,' night and morning, 

 without much timidity the young sporting and feeding with careless confidence 

 in their fickle element. 



The old birds, ever watchful and solicitous for their brood with which they 

 appear still to associate when alarmed, utter at times a sort of hoarse knik, 

 which serves as a signal either to dive or swim away. In east Florida where they 

 appear — according to Bartram — to assemble and breed in great numbers they 

 are very chattering and noisy and may be heard calling on each other almost 

 night and day. With us they are, however, very taciturn, and, like many other 

 birds, appear to have no voice, except during the nesting season. 



When closely pursued in the water, the Coot sometimes makes for the 

 shore, and from the compressed form of its body, though so awkward in its gait, 

 can make rapid progress through the grass and reeds. When driven to take wing 

 on the water, it rises low and with reluctance, fluttering along the surface with 

 both wings and feet pattering over it, for which reason, according to Lawson in 

 his ''History of Carolina," they had in that county received the name of Flus- 

 terers. 



The food of the American Coot is chiefly vegetable; they live also upon 

 small shells and aquatic insects, to all which they add gravel and sand, in the 

 manner of common fowls. A specimen which I examined in September had the 

 stomach filled with the tops of water milfoil, and a few seeds or nuts of a small 

 species of bur reed. 



Yellovvhead {Xanthocephalus xanthocephahis) 



Length : About 10 inches. Our only blackbird with a yellow head. 



Range : Confined to western North America. Breeds from southern British 

 Columbia, southern Mackenzie, soufliwestern Keewatin, and northern Minnesota 

 to southern California and Arizona, east to southern Wisconsin, Illinois and 

 Indiana; winters from southwestern California, southern Arizona, south- 

 eastern Texas, and southwestern Louisiana south into Mexico. 



Apparently Nature started out with the intention of making an oriole but 

 decided to make a blackbird instead — and behold the yellowhead. He is a sociable 

 chap and nests in great companies in the tule swamps of the west. The yellow- 

 head's voice is harsh and guttural and his vocal efforts have been well character- 

 ized as a maximum of earnest effort with a minimum of harmony. Late in 

 midsummer when the young are on the wing, old and young betake themselves to 

 the uplands, grain fields, pastures and corrals, associating as often as not with red- 

 wings and Brewer's blackbirds. The yellowhead feeds principally upon insects, 

 grain and weed seed, and does not attack fruit or garden produce; but it does 

 much good by eating noxious insects and troublesome weeds ; where too abundant 

 it is likely to be injurious to grain. 



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