CINEREOUS COOT. 
183 
forked, and consists of twelve feathers, the two exterior ones 
four inches longer than those of the middle, the whole of a 
deep black, except the two, outer feathers, which are white, but 
towards the extremities a little blackish on the inner vanes ; 
legs and webbed feet, black ; hind toe, short. 
The secondary wing feathers are eight inches shorter than 
the longest primary. 
This bird frequently settles on the rigging of ships at sea, 
and, in common with another species, S. stolida, is called by 
sailors the noddy. , 
CINEREOUS COOT FULICA AMERICANA. 
Plate LXXIII. Fig. 1. 
Fulica Americana, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 704, 23. Lath. Lid. Orn. p. 779, 6. — 
Cinereous coot, Gen. Syn. iii. p. 279. — PeaWs Museum, No. 4322. 
FULICA AMERICANA.~Gi,i^hm.* 
Fulica Americana, Sah. Append, to Capt. Frank. Exp. p. 690. Eonap. Synop. 
p. 338 — Fulica atra, Wilson's List. 
This species makes its appearance in Pennsylvania about 
the first of October. Among the muddy flats and islands of 
* This description commences the ninth and supplementary volume of the 
original printed by Mr Ord, after the decease of Wilson, fi’om his notes. The 
volume was published in 1814, and a second edition appeared in 1825, correct- 
ing several mistakes which had occurred in the fii’st. Our present bird was there 
described as identical with that of Europe, and a detail of the habits of our native 
species given as belonging to it ; these Mr Ord has corrected. The distinctions, 
I believe, were first pointed out by Mr Sabine, in the Appendix to Captain Frank- 
lin’s Narrative, and I now add them in that gentleman’s words : — 
“ They are of the same length, though there is a general inferiority in the size 
of the body, as well as of the legs, head, and bill of the American ; the bill is 
smaller, less thick and strong, and shorter by a quarter of an inch ; the callus, 
independent of the difference in colour in the American bird, extends only half 
an inch over the head, but in the European, above an inch; the whole head is 
smaller ; the plumage, generally, is similar in colour and character ; the outer 
margin of the first primary feathers of the wing, is more conspicuously marked 
