RAILS, COOTS, ETC.: AMERICAN COOT 
245 
August 12, 1920 (A. J. Kirn).] Many were seen September 9, 1903, on Black Lake, 
8,400 feet, and as the conditions at this place arc favorable for breeding, the species 
undoubtedly nests there (Bailey). In early October, 1908, they were very abundant on 
the small shallow reedy lakes along the top of the Chuska Mountains, at about S,000 
feet (Birdseye); a flock of 15 to 20 were on a reservoir near Koehler Junction, Colfax 
County, October 18-22, 1913 (Kalmbach); and a few were still present November 
17-21, 1909, at Garfield (Goldman). They were seen occasionally on the Carlsbad 
Bird Reserve in January, 1915, aud noted in December, 1916 (Willett). They are 
reported to remain through the winter on the lower Rio Grande near Fort Thorn 
(Henry), and at Mesilla (Merrill), and undoubtedly do so in small numbers at many 
places in the State as they do under similar conditions in the neighboring States. 
In the spring migration on the Carlsbad Bird Reserve they were noted in 1914 
in the third week in March, 1,000 or more were estimated (Cooper); a few nest; and 
at Chloride 15 were noted April 25, 1915 (Ligon).—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Generally among tules or sedges raised above water, woven of tules or 
sedge, sometimes with a tule gangway leading to the nest. Eggs: Usual normal sets 
8 to 12, buffy, thickly, and evenly dotted with dark brown. 
Food. —Omnivorous, feeds mostly extensively on tender aquatic vegetation, 
algae, wild celery, foxtail grass, wild rice, seeds, as pondweed, duckweed, and tule; 
but takes tadpoles, snails, and other small mollusks and water insects of many kinds, 
including water beetles; also dragon flies and grasshoppers and other foods found 
at hand. At Lake Burford in 1904, those seen out in the deep water were feeding 
on the black masses of pondweed, the gizzards of seven taken being filled mainly 
with its green stems, with the addition of tule seeds and sand. 
General Habits.— At the Burford Lakes in 1904 Coots were abun¬ 
dant both on deep water and in the tule shallows. Seven specimens, 
examined September 27, were still undergoing the fall molt. On one 
small lake edged with high black tules and yellowing green masses of the 
Olney bulrush, they were evidently on their breeding ground, the black 
spots scattered over its surface being of various sizes. Among them 
could be picked out white-cheeked Ruddy Ducks, Redheads, one or two 
grebes, and a few slender-necked phalaropes. The slaty oval bodies of 
the Coots might easily be overlooked were it not for their three distinct 
recognition marks, the white bills seen at a distance when they are 
swimming quietly on the surface making wedge-shaped waves behind 
them, the white wing markings caught when they rise laboriously, 
kicking the water foamy, and the white under-tail markings, which show 
as they swim away or when like little ducks they are standing on their 
bills with tails sticking up above the surface, marks that can be used 
effectively in leading broods through dark tule passageways. Recogni¬ 
tion marks, however, seem superfluous when the loquacious birds are 
talking. Inside the high tule hedge bordering the smaller Lake Burford, 
where the families were seen, most remarkable noises were heard in 
passing—coughing sounds, frog-like plunks, and a rough sawing oi 
filing kuk-kdwk-kuk , kuk-kdwk-kuk as of a dull saw that stuck all the 
mixed medley in tones of good fellowship and fearless disiegaid of w ho 
