CINEREOUS COOT. 
127 
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 associate 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 draftsman, 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 extensive tour 
must have revealed ! 
The coot leaves us in November for the southward. 
The foregoing was prepared for the press, when the 
author, in one of his shooting excursions on the Dela« 
ware, had the good fortune to kill a full plumaged 
female coot. This was on the 20th of April. It was 
swimming at the edge of a cripple , or thicket of alder 
bushes, busily engaged in picking something from the 
surface of the water, and, while thus employed, it turned 
frequently. The membrane on its forehead was very 
small, and edged on the fore part with gamboge. Its 
eggs were of the size of partridge shot. And on the 
13th of May, another fine female specimen was presented 
to him, which agreed with the above, with the exception 
of the membrane on the forehead being nearly as lapge 
and prominent as that of the male. From the circum- 
stance of the eggs of all these birds being very small, it 
is probable that the coots do not breed until July. 
* 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 common 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.” 
