TASMANIAN BALD COOT. 
nest, the little Bald Coots tumbled over the side and hid, some of them head 
downwards, in the thickness of the reed-clump. The one in the egg started 
squeaking as loudly as he could. I hunted up the chicks and put them back 
in the nest, when they all cuddled down, with their heads outstretched. 
Further on a nest of the same with the young and five chipping eggs, was 
discovered ; the mother slipping off in great haste and swimming across the 
river. This chick, whose down was hardly dry, tried to wriggle out of sight, 
but only succeeded in burying its head in the reeds. 
“While their offspring are very small the parent birds keep them along the 
shallow edge of the lagoon, where good cover is found among the reeds. The 
old birds are very fond of pulling up the reeds in deeper water and eating the 
white root-end. They also feast on frog’s spawn and a tiny water-snail which 
abounds in the waters of these midland lagoons. Occasionally they would 
wander on to the common and mix with the domestic fowls.” 
Writing from Tasmania, Mr. Stuart Dove tells me : “ While out boating 
on the Mersey River, on April 12th, 1909, we disturbed several Bald Coots ; one 
flew into the top of a tea-tree about twenty feet from the ground, and sat there 
till we got too close, when it fiew. This is the first one I have seen fly up in a 
tree in this manner.” 
Gould,* writing of this species in Tasmania, gives the following note : 
“ Early in the morning, and on the approach of evening, it sallies forth over 
the land in search of food, which consists of snails, insects, grain, and various 
vegetable substances ; it runs with great facility, and readily avails itself of 
this power on the approach of an intruder, making for the thickest covert, and 
threading it with amazing quickness, much after the manner of the Moor-Hen 
{Gallinula chloropus) of Europe.” 
* Handb. B. Austr., II., p. 321 (1865). 
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