310 
THE COOT. 
When the young are hatched, they look more like little 
puff-balls than the bodies of birds, with their bright red 
heads sticking out like handles. For some days they lead a 
weary life, exposed as they are to the attacks of pike, and we 
believe of rats, which devour numbers of them, in spite of the 
flouncings and flappings of the poor mother, who in vain tries 
to drive away the intruder. It is surprising, indeed, how 
any of them escape ; for though they are tolerably active, no 
efforts of theirs are sufficient to elude the swift, unerring, 
open-mouthed dart of a voracious pike. Against other 
enemies they can make a better defence ; and we have fre- 
quently witnessed the beautiful instinct with which they 
manage to elude pursuit. On seeing a fleet of these little 
red-headed floaters, paddling away in the rear of their two 
velvet-coated parents, we have often given chase. It is not 
till the danger of capture becomes imminent, that the old 
ones desert their charge, first giving the convoy a signal to 
disperse by a few short but most expressive clucks. When 
hard pressed, the young bird dives, and, if the water is clear, 
may be traced, working away with all its energies ; but, after 
remaining about a minute below, during which time it will 
dive some fifteen or twenty yards, it is forced to rise, and 
the chase is renewed. After a few divings, it becomes 
exhausted, and is easily taken. The downy covering, too, 
seems to partake of the weakened force of the body ; for the 
harder the little bird is pressed, the more susceptible is it of 
moisture ; and, instead of rising above the water glossy and 
dry, like a powder-puff, it becomes wet and spongy. Should 
it, however, contrive to gain a patch of weeds before it is 
quite exhausted, it seems to disappear by magic ; in vain is 
its rising looked for, — not a ripple betrays its progress ; and, 
had we not been fortunate enough, in several instances, to 
detect it, cowering about an inch below the surface, its body 
under the shelter of a floating leaf, and its beak projecting 
just to admit an occasional supply of air, we might have 
concluded that the poor little bird had either fallen in with a 
Pike, or fairly foundered. As if conscious of their safety, we 
have watched them, remaining motionless for several minutes 
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