CINEREOUS COOT. 
187 
cept one, the membrane of the forehead was of a dark chestnut 
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 (jP. atra) is 
met with in Jamaica, Carolina, and other parts of North 
America.” 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 the common gallinule. So is also that spoken of, in 
the Natural History of Barhadoes^ by Hughes, p. 71. 
In Lewis and Clark’s history of their expedition, mention 
is made of a bird which is common on the Columbia ; is said 
to be very noisy, to have a sharp, shrill whistle, and to asso- 
ciate in large flocks ; it is called the black duck.* This is 
doubtless a species of coot, but whether or not different from 
ours cannot be ascertained. How much is it to be regretted, 
that, in an expedition of discovery, planned and fitted out by 
an enlightened government, furnished with every means for 
safety, subsistence, and research, not one naturalist, not one 
draughtsman, should have been sent, to observe and perpetuate 
the infinite variety of natural productions, many of which are 
entirely unknown to the community of science, which that ex- 
tensive tour must have revealed ! 
The coot leaves us in November for the southward. 
* History of the Expedition, vol. ii. p. 194. Under date of November 30th, 
1805, they say, — “ The hunters brought in a few black ducks of a species com- 
mon in the United States, living in large flocks and feeding on grass ; they are 
distinguished by a sharp white beak, toes separated, and by having no craw.” 
