228 
COOT. 
The gizzard resembles a hen’s, and is remarkably large and 
muscular. That of the bird which has been described was filled 
with sand, gravel, shells, and the remains of aquatic plants. 
Buffon describes the mode of shooting Coots in France, par- 
ticularly in Lorraine, on the great pools of Tiaucourt and of Indre ; 
hence we are led to suppose that they are esteemed as an article 
of food. But with us who are enabled, by the abundance and 
variety of game, to indulge in greater luxuries in that season when 
our Coots visit us, they are considered as of no account, and are 
seldom eaten. 
The European ornithologists represent the membrane on the 
forehead of the Fulica atra as white, except in the breeding season, 
when it is said to change its colour to pale red. In every speci- 
men of the Cinereous Coot which I have seen, except one, the 
membrane of the forehead was of a dark chesnut brown colour. 
The one alluded to was a fine adult male, shot in the Delaware, at 
Philadelphia, on the 11th of May; the membrane was of a pure 
white; no white marking beneath the eye ; legs and feet of a bright 
grass green. 
In Wilson’s figure of the Coot, accompanying this volume, 
there are some slight errors : the auriculars are designated, which 
should not have been done, as they are not distinguishable from the 
rest of the plumage of the head and neck, which is all of a fine 
satiny texture ; and the outline of the bill is not correct. 
Latham states that the Common European Coot, F. alra, is 
“ met with in Jamaica, Carolina, and other parts of North Ameri- 
ca.” This I presume is a mistake, as I have never seen but one 
species of Coot in the United States. Brown, in speaking of the 
birds of Jamaica, mentions a Coot, which, in all probability, is the 
same as ours. The Coot mentioned by Sloane, is tbe Common 
Gallinule. So is also that spoken of in the Natural History of Bar- 
badoes, by Hughes, p. 71. 
