332 
RALLIM. 
THE COMMON COOT. 
Bald Coot.* 
Fulica atra, Linn. 
Is permanently resident, and breeds in suitable localities 
throughout the island, 
Which are chiefly lakes, either in wild and sequestered places 
or in game-preserved demesnes, having abundance of herbage 
about their borders. Lough Beg, near Toome (Antrim), Lough 
Achery and the lakes in Hillsborough Park (Down), the lake in 
Lord Lurgan^s demesne (Armagh), may be named as a few of the 
breeding-haunts in the north-east of the island; — in all quarters 
of which the bird has come under my notice, and nowhere so 
abundantly in summer as on the river Shannon, northward of 
Lough Derg. 
On the 27th of June, 1832, I saw at a cabin on the borders of 
Port Lough, near Dunfanaghy (Donegal), four young coots a 
week old, which had been brought out under a common hen, 
and were about the size of newly-hatched chickens. They were 
black, except about the head and neck, which being covered with 
yellowish-orange and coral-red hairs, imparted to them a sin- 
gular and handsome appearance. They were so tame as to come 
to any one when called and eat potatoes or dough out of the 
Williams of Dingle in a recent state before being skinned for preservation. The 
specimen was given to Captain Clifford, Inspector of the Coast Guard there, pre- 
served and stuffed by one of the men under his command, and subsequently presented 
to Mr. Chute. 
Owing to the circumstances of this bird’s occurrence, I give it only in a 
note. Wilson (in his Amer. Ornith. vol. iii. p. 189, Sir Wm. Jardine’s edit.) re- 
marks, that “ during its migration [in spring and autumn] this bird is frequently 
driven to sea.” He mentions one having flown on board a vessel in the Gulf-stream 
in May and another which did so in August, when the vessel was proceeding from 
Savannah to Philadelphia. 
Audubon likewise states that this bird “ not unfrequently alights on ships at sea,” 
and, among other instances, mentions three individuals having been caught 800 miles 
from land, one of them having come through the cabin window.” — Orn. Biog. 
vol. iv. p. 40. 
* This name is commonly applied to the bird in Ireland. The waterhen is 
called coot in some parts of the south, where bald coot is the distinctive appellation 
of the other species. 
