COMMON COOT. 



63 



rounded by the water ;^ it is composed of a great quantity of 

 coarse dried weeds, well matted together, and lined within witli 

 softer and finer grasses; she lays from twelve to fifteen eggs at a 

 time, and commonly hatches twice in a season : her eggs are about 

 the size of those of a pullet, and are of a pale brownish white 

 color, sprinkled with numerous small dark spots, which, at the 

 thicker end, seem as if they had run into each other, and formed 

 bigger blotches. 



" As soon as the young quit the shell, they plunge into the 

 water, dive and swim about with great ease ; but they still gather 

 together about the mother, and take shelter under her wings, and 

 do not entirely leave her for some time. They are at first covered 

 with sooty-colored down, and are of a shapeless appearance; while 

 they are in this state, and before they have learned by experience 

 to shun danger, the Kite, Moor Buzzard, and others of the Hawk 

 tribe make dreadful havoc among them;t and this, notwithstand- 

 ing the numerous brood, may account for the scarcity of the spe- 

 cies.":}: 



The Common 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 chesnut, both sides of the lower mandible marked with 

 squarish spots of like color, edged on the lower part with bright 

 yellow or gamboge, thence to the tip pale horn color ; a callous 

 membrane is spread over the forehead, of dark chesnut; irides red; 

 beneath the eyes a whitish spot; the head and neck are of a deep 

 shining black, resembling sattin ; back and scapulars dirty green- 

 ish olive; shoulders, breast, and wing coverts slate blue; the un- 



^ « A Bald Coot built her nest in Sir William Middleton's lake, at Belsay, Nortliiimberland, 

 among the rushes, which were afterwards loosened by the wind, and, of course, the nest was driven 

 about, and floated upon the surface of the water, in every direction ; notwithstanding which, the fe- 

 male continued to sit as usual, and brought out her young upon her moveable habitation." 



f " The Pike is also the indiscriminate devourer of the young of all these w ater birds." 



\ Bewick's British Birds, vol. ii, p. 129. 



