140 
THE AMERICAN COOT. 
were a few hundred yards off, scarcely took notice of the report of the 
gun ; and before I left the place, they had returned to the shore, and walked 
into another savannah, where they probably remained until night. The 
next morning not a single Coot could I find while looking for them, for 
several miles along the river, and I concluded that they had left the place, 
and continued their migratory journey northward, this being about the 
beginning of the time of their general departure. 
Whilst at General Hernandez’s, in East Florida, I found the Coot 
abundant in every ditch, bayou, or pond. This was in December, 1831, and 
in the next month I saw great flocks of them near the plantation of my - 
friend John Bulow, Esq. Whilst on a visit to Spring Garden Springs, at 
the head of the St. John’s river, I observed them to be equally abundant 
along the grassy margins of the lagoons and lakes. On my return from the 
upper parts of that river to St. Augustine, on the 28th February, I saw 
large flocks of them already moving northward. They had suddenly 
become shy, and would rise before our boat, at a distance of a hundred yards 
or so, with apparently scarcely any difficulty, and fly in loose flocks at a 
considerable height, half a mile or more at a time, and without uttering a 
note. Indeed, the only sound I ever heard these birds utter, is a rough 
guttural note, somewhat resembling crude, crude, which they use when 
alarmed, or when chasing each other on the water in anger. I am doubtful 
whether our Coot cackles and cries by night and by day, as has been 
reported ; on the other hand, I am pretty well assured that Gallinules and 
Rails of different species have been confounded with the Coot in this respect. 
I never saw this species dive for food, and the only fishes that I ever found 
in the many that I have opened, were very small minnows or fry, which I 
think they catch along the shallow edges of the water. Indeed, unless when 
wounded, our Coot feels great reluctance at immersing its body in the 
water ; at all events, it has not the quickness of any of the diving birds, and 
rarely escapes the shot of a common flint gun while attempting to get away. 
When wounded it dives to some distance, but as soon as it reaches the grass 
or reeds, it contents itself with lying flat on the water, and thus swimming 
to the nearest shore, on reaching which it at once runs off and hides in the 
first convenient place. When undisturbed, it feeds both by day and by 
night, and as often on land as on the water. Its food consists of seeds, 
grasses, small fishes, worms, snails, and insects, and along with these it 
introduces into its stomach a good quantity of rather coarse sand. 
The principal breeding places of this species are yet unknown to me. At 
Charleston it was supposed that it breeds in the neighbourhood of that city ; 
but my friend Bachman, while searching for their nests at the proper season, 
saw that the Common Gallinule was in fact the bird that had been taken for 
