352 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
This Gallinule is found abundantly in all swamps and tracts of water 
covered with floating vegetation. In the rains its area of distribution is 
much extended ; and it may then be found generally spread over flooded 
plains^ provided there is dense cover in the vicinity for this species when 
not feeding likes to conceal itself. I have generally met with them in con- 
siderable flocks. The breeding-season is July and August ; the nest, made 
of grass and reeds_, is placed on the ground in flooded spots amongst thick 
grass ; and the eggs, which are sometimes as many as ten, are a pale buff 
richly marked with red and purple. 
Genus FULICA, Linn. 
703. FULICA ATRA. 
THE COOT. 
Fulica atra, Lmn. Syst. Nat, i. p. 257 ; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 715 ; Hume, S. I. i. 
p. 249 ; id. Nests and Eggs, p. 595 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 162 ; Wardlaiu Ramsay, 
Ibis, 1877, p. 472 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 489 ; Hume Sr Bav. S. F. vi. 
p. 465 ; Dresser, Birds Eur. vii. p. 327 ; Hume, iS. F. viii. p. 113 ; Sculiy, S. F. 
viii. p. 358; Oates, S. F. x. p. 241. 
Description, — Male and female. Head and neck all round black ; the 
upper plumage, tail^ scapulars_, tertiaries and wing-coverts dark ashy 
brown ; quills light brown, the secondaries tipped with white ; lower 
plumage light ashy brown ; under tail- coverts blackish. 
Iris red ; bill and shield bluish white ; legs and toes liver-brown, tinged 
with green on the tarsus ; in summer there is a ring of yellow, green and 
red round the tibia. 
Length 16 inches, tail 2-5, wing 8*5, tarsus 2*3, bill from gape 1'4. The 
female is of the same size. 
The Coot of Europe is locally distributed throughout Burmah and 
is tolerably abundant. I met with it in the large swamp at Payagalay 
north of the town of Pegu ; Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay observed it near 
Tonghoo, and Mr. Davison at Kedai-Keglay, between the Sittang and 
Salween rivers. 
It is found over the whole of Europe and the northern half of Africa,, 
and it is spread over temperate and tropical Asia, extending through the 
islands to Australia. 
The Coot frequents weedy swamps and lakes, being found in flocks 
swimming about and feeding on vegetable matter. It makes a floating 
nest, and probably breeds in Burmah in J uly and August. 
