6 THE NATURAL HISTORY 
or 20 eggs, and when the firft are deftroyed, ' 
oftentimes the mother will again lay 10 of Yn 
more. She makes her neft in a fituation thatis — 
overflown, and covered with dead reeds. She 
chufes a tuft of them, upon thefe the heaps ftill 
more, and this mafs is raifed above the water; it 
is lined in the hollow part with dry grafs and the 
taps of reeds, which makesa neft fo large, that jf 
may be feen from a diftance. The female fits 
about 22 or 23 days, and fo foon as the little 
ones are hatched, they {pring out of the nef, 
and never return into it again. The mother 
does not brood them under her wings; they lig 
amongft the rufhes all round her. She takes 
them foon to the water, and they fwim and diyg 

very well, 
At this early age they are covered with a 
blackith fmoke-coloured down. This is the time 
that birds of prey deftroy fuch numbers of them; 
they often take away the mother and the young, 
Old Coots, who have often loft their broods, — 
grow wife ; they make their neft along the fhore, — 
among the flags, where it is much better con 
cealed: they keep their little ones in thefe clole 
places, overgrown with tall plants. ‘Thefe ay 
the broods that are faved, for fo many of the 
others 
