208 
BIRDS. 
Very common ; breeds annually on Peiitland Skerries, 
in one of the lighthouse gardens. We took an egg from a 
nest containing four rotten eggs, some young having been 
hatched off from the same nest, and a few days after we 
were there, the men found another nest with seven eggs. 
268. Gallinula chloropus (i.). Water-Hen. 
Eesident and local ; mostly confined to the south-east, where 
in one place they are very abundant ; we have received 
eggs from a locality in the north-east, and also seen a bird 
on a hill-loch at a considerable distance from its usual 
habitats. It is found breeding on a loch not far from Lairg. 
There is only one locality known to us in the west, 
where one pair of birds bred regularly for a number of 
years. Common at Tongue. 
Common in the county in suitable localities. Mr. Osborne 
had water-hens caught in the neighbourhood of Stirkoke, 
which, after two or three days' captivity, became tame 
enough to mix with the poultry (0. MSS., 1868). We 
ourselves have eggs taken near Thurso in 1869. 
269. Fulica atra, L. Coot. 
Scarce ; we have observed this species on Loch Bad-an-eontigh, 
in the parish of Eogart, and Mr. Crawford of Tongue informs 
us that he formerly (previous to 1877) observed this species 
on a small lochan in the parish of Farr, where it bred, but 
for some years back it had not reappeared there ; we have 
observed it in one or two other lochs in the east of the 
county. Has been shot singly at Tongue ; apparently came 
in from seaward on two occasions. The coot also breeds 
on the artificial lake at Eosehall, Not hitherto recorded 
from the west. 
A summer visitant to Caithness, its numbers being almost 
equal to those of the water-hen ; like that bird, too, it soon 
becomes tame in confinement (0. MSS., 1868). 
