The Coot bears some resemblance to the Florida Gallinule, but is somewhat larger, its bill is white with a blackish band about the middle, and each toe has a scalloped web. They inhabit the same marshes and sloughs that are used by the Rails and Gallinules as nesting places, and they have the same retiring habits, skulking through the grass to avoid observation, rather than flying. Their nests are either floating piles of decayed vegetation, or are built of dead rushes in clumps of rushes on the banks. They generally build in large colonies. The eggs number from six to sixteen and have a grayish ground color, finely specked all over the surface with blackish. Size 1.80 × 1.30. [Illustration 138: Pale buff.] [Illustration: Florida Gallinule. Coot.] [Illustration: Grayish.] [Illustration: deco.] [Illustration left hand margin.] Page 137 SHORE BIRDS. Order IX. LIMICOLÆ PHALAROPES. Family PHALAROPODIDAE Phalaropes are small Plover-like birds, but with lobate webbed feet, similar to those of the Grebes and Coots. 222. RED PHALAROPE. _Phalaropus fulicarius._ Range.--Northern Hemisphere, breeding in the far north, and migrating to the middle portions of the United States, chiefly on the coasts. The Red Phalarope during the breeding season has the underparts wholly reddish brown; they are very rarely seen in the United States in this dress, however for it is early changed for a suit of plain gray and white. This species has a much stouter bill than the two following; it is about nine inches in length. All the Phalaropes are good swimmers, and this species, especially, is often found in large flocks off the coast, floating on the surface of the water; they feed largely upon small marine insects. Nests in hollows on the ground, lined with a few grasses. The eggs are three or four in number, generally of a greenish buff color, spotted and blotched with brown and blackish. Data.--Myvates, Iceland, June 19, 1897. Collector, C. Jefferys. 223. NORTHERN PHALAROPE. _Lobipes labatus._ Range.--Northern Hemisphere, breeding in the northern parts of the British Provinces. This is the smallest of the Phalaropes, being about eight inches long; in summer it has a chestnut band across the breast and on the side of the neck. Its habits and nesting habits vary but little from those of the Red Phalarope, although its distribution is a little more southerly, and it is not as exclusively maritime as the preceding species. It is found on both coasts of the United States, but more common on the Pacific side, during the fall and spring, when going to or returning from its winter quarters in the tropics. Their eggs cannot, with certainty, be distinguished from the preceding species. [Illustration 139: Greenish buff.] [Illustration: Red Phalarope. Northern Phalarope.] [Illustration: Greenish buff.] [Illustration: right hand margin.] Page 138 224. WILSON'S PHALAROPE. _Steganopus tricolor._