232 
British Birds. 
(Fulica atra.) 
ornamental birds, remarkable for their green or blue plumage and their bright red 
bill and legs, are often kept in aviaries, the specimens procured have doubtless 
been some that had escaped from confinement. 
Although of a 
THE 
blackish colour like the 
COMMON COOT. 
Moor-Hen, the Coot is 
a much larger bird, and 
has the webs of the toes scalloped, so as to 
form lobes, while the ivory-white frontal 
shield is also a plainly visible character 
when the bird is seen swimming about. 
It breeds on the lakes and rivers in every 
part of the British Islands, and occurs in 
some of our southern harbours in great 
numbers in winter. It inhabits the whole The Common Coot. 
of Europe and Asia, but does not extend 
to Africa, nor beyond the Indo-Malayan Islands. The Coot is a shy bird during 
the breeding-season, but at other times it may often be seen swimming on any 
large inland water, where its white frontal shield renders it conspicuous. The nest 
is substantially built of flags and sedge and is generally found in shallow water 
among the rushes on the side of a lake. The eggs are seven or eight in number, of 
a pale clay-colour dotted with tiny blackish spots and grey underlying ones : the 
length is about two inches. 
The Pigeons . — Order Columbiformes. 
The Pigeons are separated from the other Orders of Birds by several well-marked 
anatomical characters, especially in the arrangement of their plantar tendons. 
Their external aspect is too well-known to need further description, and in many 
points they resemble Game-birds, but they have a differently shaped bill, the nostrils 
being pierced in a soft skin near the base. 
