Volume 34, Plate XXXIII / Ornithology (Birds)

Common Coot

Fulica atra

A constant resident in south and middle England but scarcely more than a summer visitant northward, the Common Coot frequents broad waters and Scotch lochs, diving like a duck and gathering in vast numbers on some English rivers where fowlers sell them. It is deep black on the head, neck, and tail shading to blackish-grey, with a conspicuous milk-white frontal shield, orange tibiae, and greenish-grey legs, the young downed in black with red about the head.