tumpy tail. It swims
buoyantly, and looks a much larger bird in the water than it really is.
It dives with ease, and when wounded is said frequently to clutch the
weeds at the bottom with a grasp so firm as not even to be loosened by
death. It does not often come on dry land, but when there, marches
leisurely and not without a certain degree of grace. The feet of the
coot are very remarkable, the toes being fringed by a lobed membrane,
which must be of considerable assistance in swimming as well as in
walking over the ooze--acting as they do like mud-boards.

In England the sport of coot-shooting is pursued to some extent on the
broads and back-waters of the eastern counties--in Southampton Water and
Christchurch Bay--and is often conducted battue-fashion by a number of
guns. But even in these cases the numbers killed in a day seldom reach
more than a few hundreds, and come very short of those that fall in the
officially-organized _chasses_ of the lakes near the coast of Languedoc
and Provence, of which an excellent description is given by the Vicomte
Louis de Dax (_Nouveaux Souvenirs de chasse_, &c., pp. 53-65; Paris,
1860). The flesh of the coot is very variously regarded as food. To
prepare the bird for the table, the feathers should be stripped, and the
down, which is very close, thick and hard to pluck, be rubbed with
powdered resin; the body is then to be dipped in boiling water, which
dissolving the resin causes it to mix with the down, and then both can
be removed together with tolerable ease. After this the bird should be
left to soak for the night in cold spring-water, which will make it look
as white and delicate as a chicken. Without this process the skin after
roasting is found to be very oily, with a fishy flavour, and if the skin
be taken off the flesh becomes dry and good for nothing (Hawker's
_Instructions to Young Sportsmen_; Hele's _Notes about Aldeburgh_).

The coot is found throughout the Palaearctic region from Iceland to
Japan, and in most other parts of the world is represented by nearly
allied species, having almost the same habits. An African species (_F.
cristata_), easily distinguished by two red knobs on its forehead, is of
rare appearance in the south of Europe. The Australian and North
American species (_F. australis_ and _F. americana_) have very great
resemblance to the English bird; but in South America half-a-dozen or
more additional species are found which range to Patagonia, and vary