They have the same power of concealing themselves by diving among weeds that has been already said to be possessed by the Gallinule. I have seen a female Coot and her brood, when disturbed by a party of sportsmen, paddle for a small patch of rushes, and defy a long-continued and minute search conducted by keepers and clever water-dogs. The latter appeared to traverse, again and again, every square foot of the rush bed; but not a single bird was dislodged.
Owing to drainage the Coot is less plentiful than it was, although the late Lord Lilford said it had increased much on the river Nene of recent years.
ORDER ALECTORIDES
FAMILY GRUIDÆ
THE CRANE
GRUS COMMÚNIS
General plumage ash-grey; throat, part of the neck, and back of the head, dark blackish grey; forehead and cere covered with black bristly hairs; crown naked, orange red; some of the secondaries elongated, arched, and having the barbs of the feathers free; bill greenish black, reddish at the base, horn-coloured at the tip; irides reddish brown; feet black. Young birds have the crown feathered, and want the dark grey of the neck and head. Length five feet. Eggs pale greenish ash, blotched and spotted with brown and dark green.
From the fact of nine Cranes being recorded among the presents received at the wedding of the daughter of Mr. More, of Loseley, in 1567, it would appear that these birds were tolerably common in England at that date.
