134 
BRITISH BIRDS. 
cloathed with a thick down, and covered with clofe 
fine feathers : the thighs are placed far behind, are 
flefhy and ftrong, bare, and yellow above the knees : 
the legs and toes are commonly of a yellowifh 
green, but fometimes of a lead colour. 
The Common Coot has fo many traits in its 
character, and fo many features in its general ap- 
pearance like the Rails and Water Hens, that to 
place it after them, feems a natural and eafy gra- 
dation : Linn^us and other ornithologifls, however, 
defcribe it as of a genus diftinQ: from thofe birds, 
and from the waders in general, on account of its 
being fin-footed, and its conftant attachment to the 
waters, which, indeed, it feldom quits. With it 
naturalifts begin the numerous tribe of fwimmers, 
and rank it among thofe that are the moil com- 
pleatly dependent upon the watery element for their 
fupport : it fwims and dives with as much eafe as 
almoft any of them ; and alfo, like thofe which fel- 
dom venture upon land, it is a bad traveller, and 
may be faid not to walk, but to fplafh and waddle 
between one pool and another, with a laboured, ill- 
balanced, and aukward gait. 
Thefe birds, like thofe of the preceding kinds, 
flmlk and hide themfelves, during the day, among 
rufhes, fedges, and weeds, which grow abundantly 
in the loughs and ponds, where they take up their 
conftant abode : they rarely venture abroad, except 
in the dufk, and in the night, in queft of their food? 
