WILD FOWL. 
97 
species ; it is known on the Long Island shore as a Coot, and ia 
shot solely for sport. He is briefly described in Wilson’s Orni¬ 
thology, as follows: 
“ This Duck is peculiar to America,* and altogether confined 
to the bays and shores of the sea, particularly where the waves 
roll over the sandy beach. Their food consists principally of 
those small bivalve shell-fish already described, spout-fish, and 
others that lie in the sand near its surface. For these they dive 
almost constantly, both in the sandy bays and amidst the 
tumbling surf. They seldom or never visit the salt marshes. 
They continue on our shores during the winter, and leave us 
early in May, for their breeding places in the North. Their 
skins are remarkably strong, and their flesh coarse, tasting of 
fish. They are shy birds, not easily approached, and are com¬ 
mon in winter along the whole coast, from the River St. Law¬ 
rence to Florida. 
“ The length of this species is twenty inches ; extent thirty- 
two inches; the bill is yellowish-red, elevated at the base, and 
marked on the side of the upper mandible with a large square 
patch of black, preceded by another space of a pearl color; the 
part of the 7 bill thus marked swells, or projects, considerably 
from the common surface ; the nostrils are large and pervious ; 
the sides of the bill broadly serrated or toothed; both mandi¬ 
bles are furnished with a nail at the extremity; irides white or 
very pale cream; whole plumage, a shining black, marked on 
the crown and hind head with two triangular spaces of pure 
white ; the plumage on both these spots is shorter and thinner 
than the rest; legs and feet blood-red; membrane of the web¬ 
bed feet black; the primary quills are of a deep dusky-brown, 
“ On dissection, the gullet was found to be gradually enlarged 
to the gizzard, which was altogether filled with broken shell- 
* “ One or two instances of this bird being killed on the shores of Great Bri¬ 
tain, have occurred ; and, as an occasional visitant, it will be figured in the 
concluding number of Mr. Selby’s Illustrations of British Ornithology. It is 
also occasionally met with on the continent of Europe, but generally in high lat¬ 
itudes, and, though unfrequent elsewhere, it is not entirely confined to America.” 
VOL. II. 7 
