MUD-HEN. Fulica americana Gmelin

Field characters.—Size of a small duck but with short, whitish bill; front toes with broad flaps or lobes, instead of complete webs. Plumage chiefly dark slate; head and neck black; a white V on under side of up-tilted tail. Walks or swims with fore-and-aft movement of head in unison with tread of feet; rises from water with labored effort, and flies with the large feet extending bulkily beyond end of tail. Voice: An explosive pulque, or plop, with hollow intonation.

Occurrence.—Resident in small numbers on slower streams west of foothills; transient on lower foothill streams elsewhere in the region, and summer visitant to smaller lakes east of Sierra Nevada.

To unobserving persons the Mud-hen or "coot" often passes for a duck, but students of systematic ornithology recognize it as a forward-pushing relative of the retiring rails. The Mud-hen is a bird of open water; at times it may be seen from the windows of the railroad train passing through the lower Merced Cañon, swimming slowly about on the quieter stretches of the river in search of food, or, when excited, rising with paddling feet and heavily beating wings to take a direct course away from the source of fright.

Mud-hens occasionally stray up the rivers well into the western foothills, for example, one was seen at Kittredge, October 22. In migration they visit certain lakes east of the Sierran crest other than those on which they nest; a flock of a hundred or more was seen on June Lake, near Reversed Peak, September 17, 1915.