128 
THE COOT. 
ations being well adapted to the batching and rearing of 
their young. In the Southern States, particularly South 
Carolina, they are well known ; but the Floridas appear to 
be their principal rendezvous for the business of incubation. 
u The Coot,” says William Bartram*, “ is a native of North 
America, from Pennsylvania to Florida. They inhabit 
large rivers, fresh-water inlets or bays, lagoons, &c., where 
they swim and feed amongst the reeds and grass of the 
shores ; particularly in the river St. Juan, in East Florida ; 
where they are found in immense flocks. They are loqua- 
cious and noisy, talking to one another night and day ; are 
constantly on the water, the broad, lobated membranes on 
their toes enabling them to swim and dive like ducks.” 
The Coot inhabits the shores of Sweden and Norway; 
appears in the spring, and very rarely visits the lakes or 
moors. Is found in .Russia, China, Persia, Greenland, and 
Siberia. It is common in France, particularly in Lorraine. 
“ This species is met with in Great Britain, at all seasons 
of the year; and it is generally believed, that it does not 
migrate to other countries, but changes its stations, and 
removes in the autumn from the lesser pools, or loughs, 
where the young have been reared, to the larger lakes, 
where flocks assemble in the winter. The female commonly 
builds her nest in a bunch of rushes, surrounded by the 
water; it is composed of a great quantity of coarse dried 
weeds, well matted together, and lined within with softer 
and finer grasses ; she lays from twelve to fifteen eggs at a 
