PINNATIFIED, OP FIN-FOOTED BIRDS.
Bill middle-sized and straight ; upper mandibles slight ly curved at the tip ; legs of moderate dimensions; tarsi slender or compressed ; three toes before and one behind, rudiments of webs along the tqes.
The birds included in this order are monogamous, but unite in large bands for their periodical voyages, which they perform by flight or swimming. They swim and dive with equal facility, and stretch their legs back wards in flight. In general, there is no very marked dif ference between the male and the female. Their food consists of insects, worms, fish, and their spawn, and oc casionally of vegetables. Their body is covered with an abundant down; and their plumage is close and glossy.
FuLteA, Briss. Tem. Coo r.
Bill middle-sized, strong, conical, straight, compress ed, much deeper than broad at the base, the ridge project ing in front, and dilated into a naked plate; both mandi bles of the same length, the upper slightly curved, and widened at the base, the lower forming an angle; nostrils lateral in the middle of the bill, longitudinally cleft, half closed by a membrane, and pervious; legs long, slender, naked above the knee, all the toes very long, connected at their base, and furnished along their sides with scallop ed membranes; wings middle-sized. The coots are more decided residents in the water than even the gallinules, being rarely seen on land, living and travelling in the liquid clement, and swimming and diving with equal facility. But they inhabit fresh waters, gulfs, and bays, and venture not into the deep and open seas. Although indi viduals of the same species vary considerably in dimen sions, the sexes are scarcely distinguishable, and the young differ very little in appearance from the adults. Their food chiefly consists of insects and aquatic vege tables.
atra, Lin. Re. including the aterrima, Gmel. Com mon, Black, or Bald Coot ; Snyth of the Orcadians. Front flesh-colour, and tinged with red in the breeding season ; bracelets greenish-yellow ; body blackish ; outer edge of the wings white. There arc, however, several varieties, which by some have been marked as distinct species. Length about eighteen inches, weight from twenty to thirty ounces; size that of the domestic fowl. Inhabits Europe, Asia, and America. In Great Britain it occurs at all seasons of the year, and is not supposed to migrate to other countries; but only changes its stations, removing front the pools, where the young have been reared, to the larger lakes, about which they flock to gether in winter. This species breeds early in spring, the female generally constructing her nest of a large quan tity of coarse dry herbage, as flags and rushes, well matted together, and bound with softer and finer grasses, in a bush of rushes, surrounded by the water. By heaping
the materials together, she raises the fabric sufficiently above the water to keep the eggs dry ; but as this sort of structure frequently renders it too conspicuous to the buzzard, and other birds of prey, the old females, instruct ed by experience, place it on the banks of streams, and among the tallest flags, where it is better concealed. As it is kept in a buoyant state, a sudden flood, attended by a gale of wind, has been known to drive it from its moor ings, and to float it from one side of a large piece of water to the other, with the bird still sitting on it. The latter lays from twelve even to twenty eggs at a time, and com monly hatches twice in a season. The eggs are about the size of those of a pullet, and of a pale brownish-white, sprinkled with numerous dark spots, which run into blotches at the thicker end. In Holland, these eggs, be fore they are fecundated, are sold in the market, and fetch a considerable price. The incubation lasts twenty two or twenty-three days. As soon as the young quit the shell. they plunge into the water, dive, and swim about with great ease; and, though they do not return to the nest, nor take shelter under their mother's wings, they still gather about her for some time, and skulk under the flags. They are at first covered with a sooty down, and are of a shapeless appearance; and before they have learned to shun their enemies, they are often sacrificed to the rapacity of the pike, the moor-buzzard, kite, Stc. This species breeds abundantly in the Isle of Sheppey, where the inhabitants will not suffer their eggs to be ta ken, as the birds form a considerable article of food. The French eat them on meagre days; but, though skinned before dressing, they arc not very palatable to every ap petite. The common coot is a bad traveller, and waddles from one pool to another with a laboured, ill-balanced, and awkward gait. During the day it usually lies con cealed among the water plants, rarely venturing abroad except in the dusk, or at night,in quest of herbage, seeds, insects, or fishes, the light possibly dazzling its imperfect vision. The sportsman and his dog can seldom force it from its retreat, as it will rather bury itself in the mud than spring up, or, if very closely pursued and compelled to rise, it moves with much fluttering and apparent diffi culty.