184 
CINEREOUS COOT. 
the river Delaware, which are periodically overflowed, and 
which are overgrown with the reed or wild oats, and rushes, 
the coots are found. They are not numerous, and are seldom 
seen, except their places of resort be covered with water ; in 
that case they are generally found sitting on the fallen reed, 
waiting for the ebbing of the tide, which will enable them to 
feed. Their food consists of various aquatic plants, seeds, 
insects, and, it is said, small fish. The coot has an aversion to 
take wing, and can seldom be sprung in its retreat at low 
water : for, although it walks rather awkwardly, yet it con- 
trives to skulk through the grass and reeds with great speed, 
the compressed form of its body, like that of the rail genus, 
being well adapted to the purpose. It swims remarkably well, 
and, when wounded, will dive like a duck. When closely 
pursued in the water, it generally takes to the shore, rising 
with apparent reluctance, like a wounded duck, and fluttering 
along the surface, with its feet pattering on the water.* It is 
known in Pennsylvania by the name of the mud-hen. 
I have never yet discovered that this species breeds with us ; 
though it is highly probable that some few may occupy the 
marshes of the interior, in the vicinity of the ponds and lakes, 
for this purpose : those retired situations being well adapted to 
the hatching and rearing of their young. In the southern 
states, particularly South Carolina, they are well known ; but 
the Floridas appear to be their principal rendezvous for the 
business of incubation. The coot,” says William Bartram, 
with white, and there are a few white feathers on the upper edge of the wing ; 
the secondaries in both are tipped with white ; the principal difference in the 
plumage is, that in the American the feathers at the vent are quite black, and the 
under tail-coverts white; in the European coot, these correspond with the rest of 
the plumage ; the legs are much more slender in the American bird ; the tarse 
of the European measures near two inches and a half, that of the American not 
quite two inches ; the toes are smaller in like proportion ; the middle toe, inclu- 
ding the claw, of the European coot, is three inches and three quarters long ; of 
the American, three inches and one quarter only.” — Ed. 
* In Carolina, they are called Flusterers, from the noise they make in flying 
over the surface of the water. — A Voyage to Carolina, by John Lawson, p. 149. 
