126 
FULICA AMERICANA. 
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, 
particularly 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 abundance 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 breeding season, when it is said to change its colour 
to pale red. In every specimen of the cinereous coot 
which I have seen, except 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 Dela- 
ware, at Philadelphia, on the 1 1th 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, 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 
(f 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 Barb ado es, by Hughes, p» 71. 
