186 
CINEREOUS COOT. 
middle toe, including the claw, three inches and three quarters 
long. 
The bird from which the foregoing description was taken, 
was shot in the Delaware, below Philadelphia, the 29th of 
October, 1813. It was an old male, an uncommonly fine spe- 
cimen, and weighed twenty- three ounces avoirdupois. It is 
deposited in Peale’s Museum. 
The young birds differ somewhat in their plumage, that of 
the head and neck being of a brownish black ; that of the breast 
and shoulders, pale ash ; the throat, grey or mottled ; the bill, 
bluish white ; and the membrane on the forehead, considerably 
smaller. 
The young females very much resemble the young males ; 
all the difference which I have been enabled to perceive, is as 
follows : — breast and shoulders, cinereous ; markings on the 
bill, less; upper parts of the head, in some specimens, mottled; 
and being less in size. 
The lower parts of these birds are clothed with a thick 
down, and, particularly between the thighs, covered with close 
fine feathers. The thighs are placed far behind, are fleshy, 
strong, and bare above the knees. 
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 abun- 
dance 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 breed- 
ing season, when it is said to change its colour to pale red. In 
every specimen of the cinereous coot which I have seen, ex- 
