COO'SY. See I:1:81.
COOT (probably from Welsh crab°, Corn, cut, Ir., Gael. eutacli, bob-tailed). A kind of rail or 'mud-hen' 1 Fulica), distinguished from other rails (q.v.) chiefly in having the toes edged with a scalloped membrane. Coots have a strong, straight bill, the base of which extends up the forehead, and there dilates so as to form a re markable naked patch. The color is generally dark with more or less white, and the length is about 15 inches. Coots are aquatic in their habits, preferring lakes, or pools with reedy mar gins, and retreating among the reeds on any alarm. The American coot (Fuller' Americana) is found breeding throughout all North America, and is migratory in the north, but resident in the south. It is dark-slate color, deepening on the head and neck, and the crissum is white. The nest is a hollow heap of broken, dead reeds: the eggs (see Colored Plate of EGGS OF WATER AND GAME BIRDS) are usually about a dozen in number, clear clay color, dotted with dark brown. The young are covered with black down, striped with bright orange-red. See Plate of RAILS, ETC.
The common coot (Fulica atra) of the Old World is found in most parts of Europe, Asia, and the north of Africa. It is about 16 inches long, black, with a narrow white liar across the wings, and the naked patch on the forehead pure white, on account of which it is often called `bald' coot. The crissum is not white, and this is the most important difference between it and its American cousin. It makes a large nest of water-plants among reeds or rushes. Although not very highly esteemed for the table, the cir cumstance that many can be killed by a single shot, on the mud-hanks to which coots resort in winter, as on the south coast of England, makes coot-shooting profitable to market gunners. Other species inhabit eastern Asia, Africa, and South America. The name 'coot' is very often incorrectly applied in the United States to cer tain ducks, which are properly known as scoters (q.v.).