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are fond of nice distinctions, may be said, perfectly to resemble each other in figure, feathers, and habits; they both have long legs, with thighs almost bare of hair or feathers: their necks are rather long in proportion; their wings short, as are their bills, which are very weak; their general colour is black, and their forehead bald and without feathers. Such are their similarities; and their slight differences are first in size, the Water-hen weighing but fifteen ounces and the coot twenty-four. The bald part of the forehead in the Coot is black, in the Water-hen it is of a pink colour. The toes of the Water-hen are edged with a straight membrane; those of the Coot have it scolloped and broader. In shape and figure their differences are very trifling, and, if possible, their manner of living is still more so.

Birds of the crane kind are furnished with long wings, and can easily change place, but the Waterhen, whose wings are short, is obliged to reside entirely near those places where her food lies: she cannot take those journeys that most of the crane kind are seen to perform; compelled by her natural imperfections, as well perhaps as by inclination, she never leaves the side of the pond or the river in which she seeks her provision. She builds her nest upon low trees and shrubs, of sticks and fibres, by the waterside. Her eggs, which are seven in number, are sharp at one end, white, with a tincture of green spotted with red. She lays twice or thrice in a summer; her young ones swim the moment they leave the egg, pursue their parent, and imitate all her manners. She rears in this manner two or three broods in a season; and when the young are grown up, she drives them off to shift for themselves. In flying the Water-hen hangs down its legs, and in running it often flirts up its tail, so as to show the white feathers.

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THE Coot is a large bird, being about fifteen inches long, and is always seen in larger streams, and more remote from mankind. The water hen seems to prefer inhabited situations: she keeps near ponds, moats, and pools of water near gentlemen's houses; but the Coot keeps in rivers, and among rushy margined lakes: it there makes a nest of such weeds as the stream supplies and lays them among the reeds, floating on the surface, and rising and falling with the water. The reeds among which it is built keep it fast, so that it is seldom washed into the middle of the stream. But if this happens, which is sometimes the case, the bird sits in her nest, like a mariner in his boat, and steers with her legs her cargo into the nearest harbour; there, having attained her port, she continues to sit in great tranquillity, regardless of the force of the current; and though the water penetrates her nest, she hatches her eggs in that wet condition. The food of the Coot consists of water insects and small fish; but they sometimes eat the roots of the bulrush; they are said likewise to eat grain.

The water-hen never wanders; but the Coot sometimes swims down the current, till it even reaches the sea. In this voyage these birds encounter a thousand dangers; as they cannot fly far, they are hunted by dogs and men; as they never leave the stream, they are attacked and destroyed by otters: they are preyed upon by kites and falcons; and they are taken in still greater numbers, in weirs made for catching fish. It is in winter that they chiefly repair to the sea, and the channel near Southampton is at times observed to be almost covered with them.

The species called the GREATER COOT is larger than the Common Coot, and has blacker plumage. It is found in Lancashire and Scotland, but is more plentiful on the Continent. In Russia and Siberia it is very common.

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THE Water-ouzel, called also the Water-rail, Watercrake, Water-crow, or Piet, belongs to the stare tribe, and is in size somewhat less than the blackbird. Its bill is black, and almost straight. The eyelids are white. The upper parts of the head and neck are of a deep brown; and the rest of the upper parts, the belly, vent, and tail, are black. The chin, the fore

part of the neck, and breast, are white or yellowish. The legs are black.

This bird frequents the banks of springs or brooks, which it never leaves; preferring the limpid streams whose fall is rapid, and whose bed is broken with stones and fragments of rocks. The habits of the Water-ouzel are very singular. Aquatic birds with palmated feet, swim or dive; those which inhabit the shores, without wetting their body, wade with their tall legs; but the Water-ouzel, which, it must be remembered, is neither a wader nor a diver, but one of the passerine birds, walks quite into the flood, following the declivity of the ground. It is observed to enter by degrees, till the water reaches its neck; and it still advances, holding its head not higher than usual, though completely immersed. It continues to walk under the water; and even descends to the bottom, where it saunters as on dry land. M. Herbert, who watched one immersing itself in the Lake of Nantua, and who communicated the fact to M. de Buffon, says, "I perceived several times, that as often as it waded deeper than the knee, it displayed its wings, and allowed them to hang to the ground. I remarked, too, that, when I could discern it at the bottom of the water, it appeared enveloped with air, which gave it a brilliant surface, like that on some sorts of beetles, which in water are always enclosed in a bubble of air. Its view, in dropping its wings on entering the water, might be to confine this air; it was certainly never without some, and it seemed to quiver." It is a curious fact that even the young ones, before they are quite feathered, are able to make their way under water, the same as the older birds.

These birds are found in many parts of Europe. The female makes her nest on the ground, in some mossy bank near the water, of hay and dried fibres,

lining it with dry oak leaves, and forming to it a portico or entrance of moss. The nest is in its colour so closely similar to that of the surrounding objects that it is almost impossible to discover it except when the bird is entering. The eggs are five in number; white, tinged with a fine blush of red. It will sometimes pick up insects at the edge of the water. When disturbed, it usually flirts up its tail, and makes a chirping noise. Its song in spring is said to be very pretty. In some places it is supposed to be migratory.

The SECRETARY FALCON. See vol. i. p. 172.

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