253 
OF BIRDS® 
is black, in the water-hen it is of a pink colour. The 
toes of the water-hen are edged with a straight mem- 
brane; those of the coot have it scolloped and broader. 
In shape and figure their differences are very trifling, and 
if possible, their manner of living still less; therefore 
the history of one will serve for both: yet we shall in- 
troduce an engraving of each. 
As birds of the crane kind are furnished with long 
wings, and easily change place, the water-hen, whose 
wings are short, is obliged to reside entirely near those 
places where her food lies: she cannot take those jour- 
nies that most of the crane kind are seen to perform; 
compelled by her natural imperfections, as well perhaps 
as by inclination, she never leaves the side of the pond 
or the river in which she seeks her provision. She 
builds her nest upon low trees and shrubs, of sticks and 
fibres, by the water side. Her eggs are sharp at one 
end, white, with a tincture of green spotted with red. 
She lays twice or thrice in a summer; her young ones 
swim the moment they leave the egg, pursue their parent, 
and imitate all her manners. She rears in this manner 
two or three broods in a season; and when the young are 
grown up, she drives them off to shift for themselves. 
Coot. ( Fulica . PI. 43.) As the coot is a large bird, it 
is always seen in larger streams, and more remote from 
mankind. The water-hen seems to prefer inhabited situa- 
tions: she keeps near ponds, moats, and pools of water 
near gentlemen’s houses; but the coot keeps in rivers, and 
among rushy margined lakes; it there makes a nest of 
such weeds as the stream supplies, and lays them among 
the reeds, floating on the surface, and rising and falling 
with the water. The reeds among which it is built keep 
it fast, so that it is seldom washed into the middle of the 
stream. But if this happens, which is sometimes the 
case, the bird sits in her nest, like a mariner in his boat, 
and steers with her legs her cargo into the nearest har- 
bour; there, having attained her port, she continues to sit 
in great tranquillity, regardless of the force of the cur- 
rent; and though the water penetrates her nest, she 
hatches her eggs in that wet condition. 
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