BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
of the beaters found a Moor-hen sitting at the side of a 
smaU stream. He tried to catch it with the crook of his 
stick but failed, and it sUd into the water. It then 
swam down the stream under water for about fifty yards, 
using its wings as a man uses his arms in smmmmg. 
We headed it off, and it then swam up-stream m a similar 
manner, when it came to the surface and was taken by 
a retriever. It was a performance I had not seen before, 
and aU present were astonished at the ease and at the 
length of time the bird swam under water. 
The Moor-hen is not regarded as a migrant in our county, 
though in continued severe weather it changes its habitat. 
H A. Macpherson says that the species is migratory 
to a considerable extent, and adds that he has found 
the remains of Moor-hens washed up on the Solway Jirth 
after heavy gales, as though the birds had been blown out 
from land and perished at sea."* I should be mchned to 
think that these were birds which had succumbed inland 
to the severity of the season, and had been washed down 
by the rivers to the Solway shores. 
THE COOT. Fulica atra, Linnaeus. 
Local name— Bald Coot. 
" The coot came forth at times to show the speck 
Of white upon his wings, then swept away 
Behind the twisted roots. The silent heron, 
Amid the tiny pillars of the reed, 
Kept eager watch, nor stirr'd upon his post, 
But stood a feather'd patience waitmg prey. „ 
Alexander Anderson. — Agnes uiea. 
A resident, but very subject to partial migration. 
To many of our lochs and lochans Coots are only known 
as spring-visitants, and they are beheved to be decreasing 
* Fauna of Lakeland, 1892, p. 345. 
