At other times of the year it is comparatively unmolested, and being very prolific its abundance is easily understood. The nest is a large mass of flags, reeds or sedge, piled together among rushes in the water or on the margin, and not unfrequently contains as many as ten eggs. The young, when first hatched, are beautiful little creatures, clothed in jet-black down, with their heads of a bright orange-scarlet, varied with purplish-blue. This brilliant colouring is soon lost, and they begin to assume the almost uniform sooty-black plumage which is worn for the rest of their life; but a characteristic of the adult is a bare patch or callosity on the forehead, which being nearly white gives rise to the epithet “bald” often prefixed to the bird’s name. The coot is about 18 in. in length, and will sometimes weigh over 2 ℔. Though its wings appear to be short in proportion to its size, and it seems to rise with difficulty from the water, it is capable of long-sustained and rather rapid flight, which is performed with the legs stretched out behind the stumpy 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 much in size, one (F. gigantea) being of considerable magnitude. The remains of a very large species (F. newtoni) were discovered in Mauritius, where it must have been a contemporary of the dodo, but like that bird is now extinct. (A. N.)
COOTE, SIR EYRE (1726–1783), British soldier, the son of
a clergyman, was born near Limerick, and entered the 27th
regiment. He saw active service in the Jacobite rising of 1745,
and some years later obtained a captaincy in the 39th regiment,
which was the first British regiment sent to India. In 1756 a
part of the regiment, then quartered at Madras, was sent forward
to join Clive in his operations against Calcutta, which was re-occupied
without difficulty, and Coote was soon given the local
rank of major for his good conduct in the surprise of the Nawab’s
camp. Soon afterwards came the battle of Plassey, which would
in all probability not have taken place but for Coote’s soldierly
advice at the council of war; and after the defeat of the Nawab
he led a detachment in pursuit of the French for 400 m. under
extraordinary difficulties. His conduct won him the rank of
lieutenant-colonel and the command of the 84th regiment,
newly-raised for Indian service, but his exertions seriously
injured his health. In October 1759 Coote’s regiment arrived
to take part in the decisive struggle between French and English
in the Carnatic. He took command of the forces at Madras,
and in 1760 led them in the decisive victory of Wandiwash
(January 22). After a time the remnants of Lally’s forces
were shut up in Pondicherry. For some reason Coote was not
entrusted with the siege operations, but he cheerfully and loyally
supported Monson, who brought the siege to a successful end
on the 15th of January 1761. Soon afterwards Coote was given
the command of the East India Company’s forces in Bengal,
and conducted the settlement of a serious dispute between the
Nawab Mir Cassim and a powerful subordinate, and in 1762 he
returned to England, receiving a jewelled sword of honour from
the Company and other rewards for his great services. In 1771
he was made a K.B. In 1779 he returned to India as lieutenant-general
commanding in chief. Following generally the policy
of Warren Hastings, he nevertheless refused to take sides in the
quarrels of the council, and made a firm stand in all matters
affecting the forces. Hyder Ali’s progress in southern India
called him again into the field, but his difficulties were very
great and it was not until the 1st of June 1781 that the crushing
and decisive defeat of Porto Novo struck the first heavy blow
at Hyder’s schemes. The battle was won by Coote under most
unfavourable conditions against odds of five to one, and is
justly ranked as one of the greatest feats of the British in India.
It was followed up by another hard-fought battle at Pollilur
(the scene of an earlier triumph of Hyder over a British force)
on the 27th of August, in which the British won another success,
and by the rout of the Mysore troops at Sholingarh a month
later. His last service was the arduous campaign of 1782,
which finally shattered a constitution already gravely impaired
by hardship and exertions. Sir Eyre Coote died at Madras on
the 28th of April 1783. A monument was erected to him in Westminster Abbey.
For a short biography of Coote see Twelve British Soldiers (ed. Wilkinson, London, 1899), and for the battles of Wandewash and Porto Novo, consult Malleson, Decisive Battles of India (London, 1883). An account of Coote may be found in Wilk’s Historical Sketches of Mysore (1810).
COPAIBA, or Copaiva (from Brazilian cupauba), an oleo-resin—sometimes
termed a balsam—obtained from the trunk of the
Copaifera Lansdorfii (natural order Leguminosae) and from
other species of Copaifera found in the West Indies and in the
valley of the Amazon. It is a somewhat viscous transparent
liquid, occasionally fluorescent and of a light yellow to pale
golden colour. The odour is aromatic and very characteristic,
the taste acrid and bitter. It is insoluble in water, but soluble
in absolute alcohol,
ether and the fixed
and volatile oils. Its
approximate composition
is more than 50% of a volatile oil
and less than 50% of a
resin. The pharmacopoeias contain
the oleo-resin itself, which is given in doses of from a half to one drachm, and the oleum copaibae, which is given in doses of from five to twenty minims, but which is inferior, as a medicinal agent, to the oleo-resin. Copaiba shares the pharmacological characters of volatile oils generally. Its distinctive features are its disagreeable taste and the unpleasant eructations to which it may give rise, its irritant action on the intestine in any but small doses, its irritant action on the skin, often giving rise to an erythematous eruption which may be mistaken for that of scarlet fever, and its exceptionally marked stimulant action on the kidneys. In large doses this last action may lead to renal inflammation. The resin is excreted in the urine and is continually mistaken for albumin since it is precipitated by nitric acid, but the precipitate is re-dissolved, unlike albumin, on heating. Its nasty taste, its irritant action on the bowel, and its characteristic odour in the breath, prohibit its use—despite its other advantages—in all diseases but gonorrhoea. For this disease it is a valuable
