_Bald Coot._—(_Fulica atra_, LINN.—_Le Foulque au Morelle_, BUFF.)—This bird generally weighs, when in full condition, about twenty-eight ounces, and measures fifteen inches in length. The bill is of a greenish white colour, more than an inch and a quarter long: a callous white membrane, like that of the water hen, but larger, is spread over the forehead, which also, as in that bird, changes its colour to a pale red in the breeding season: irides red; the upper part of the plumage is black, except the outer edges of the wings, and a spot under each eye, which are white; the under parts are of a hoary dark ash or lead colour. The skin is clothed with a thick down, and covered with close fine feathers; the thighs are placed far behind, are fleshy and strong, bare, and yellow above the knees; the legs and toes are commonly of a yellowish green, but sometimes of lead colour. The common coot has so many traits in its character, and so many features in its general appearance like the rails and water hens, that to place it after them, seems a natural and easy gradation. Linnæus and other ornithologists, however, describe it as a genus distinct from those birds, and from the waders in general, on account of its being fin footed, and its constant attachment to the waters, which, indeed, it seldom quits. With it naturalists begin the numerous tribe of swimmers, and rank it among those that are the most completely dependent upon the watery element for their support: it swims and dives with as much ease as almost any of them; and also, like those which seldom venture upon land, it is a bad traveller, and may be said not to walk, but to splash and waddle between one pool and another, with a laboured, ill balanced, and awkward gait. These birds skulk and hide themselves during the day among rushes, sedges, and weeds, which grow abundantly in the loughs and ponds, where they take up their constant abode: they rarely venture abroad, except in the dusk, and in the night, in quest of their food, which consists of the herbage, seeds, insects, and the slippery inhabitants of stagnant waters. It is seldom that the sportsman and his dog can force the coot to spring from its retreat; for it will, in a manner, bury itself in the mud rather than take wing: and when it is very closely pursued, and compelled to rise, it does so with much fluttering and apparent difficulty.