CINEREOUS COOT. 125 
gallinule ( gallimla chloropus ;) but there is not, per- 
haps, one of the latter, for twenty of the former. 
The cinereous coot is sixteen inches in length, and 
twenty-eight in extent ; bill, one and a half inch long, 
white, the upper mandible slightly notched near the 
tip, and marked across with a band of chestnut, the 
lower mandible marked on each side with a squarish spot 
of the like colour, edged on the lower part with bright 
yellow or gamboge, thence to the tip, pale horn colour ; 
membrane of the forehead, dark chestnut brown ; 
irides, cornelian red ; beneath the eyes, in most speci- 
mens, a whitish spot ; the head and neck are of a deep 
shining black, resembling satin ; back and scapulars, 
dirty greenish olive ; shoulders, breast, and wing- 
coverts, slate blue ; the under parts are hoary ; vent, 
black ; beneath the tail, pure white ; primaries and 
secondaries, slate, the former tipt with black, the latter 
with white, which does not appear when the wing is 
closed ; outer edges of the wings, white ; legs and 
toes, yellowish green, the scalloped membrane of the 
latter, lead colour ; 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 specimen, 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, 
gray or mottled ; the bill, bluish white : and the mem- 
brane 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, 
