JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL vSOCIETY. 69 



White=winged Jerry, the Scoter. 



story of a Captive Wild "Coot" {(''idi'iiiia dfolaudi) at Falmouth Foreside, 

 on the Shore of Casco Bay. 



Bv Waltkr H. Rich, Portland. 

 One Sunday morning two wild-eyed youngsters came tearing 

 into my house dangling between them a very dilapidated specimen 

 of webfoot and dodging his apparently very vicious snaps at them. 

 Poor old fellow! He was in serious case. A bargain was easily 

 struck (I am a mark for all the ornithological derelicts in the neigh- 

 borhood), and I began at once an examination with a view to repairs 

 needed. The casualties were as follows: L^eft wing broken, a com. 

 plete fracture of the humerus — serious; a flesh wound at the l^ase 

 of the neck — not serious; support of outer third of starboard paddle 

 broken and hanging by a thread of skin, and a splinter of bone — 

 not serious (a snip of the shears mends it) ; rake across the quarter 

 deck — a painful but not a dangerous wound. 



He seemed to realize that he had found friends and made not 

 the slightest motion when I pulled the feathers out of his flesh 

 wounds, and poking his black head down into the bend of my 

 friend's arm he scarcely so much as winked w^hile I made splints of 

 pieces of shingles w^ound with soft cloth, placed the two ends of the 

 Ijone together and sewed through skin and feathers with soft silk. 

 A quiet corner of the hen house furnished him snug quarters while 

 our mariner was in sick bay, and the rest w^as left to the good nurse, 

 nature. For a few days the main trouble was to make the patient 

 eat, although we did not urge him much at first, but after four days 

 I thought it necessary to push pieces of fish down his throat. The 

 seventh morning of his stay he began to grow restive and tug at 

 his splint. Thinking to replace it more correctly I removed the 

 bandages to find, to my surprise, that the bone had knit firmly. 

 The question of food supply was now of the most importance. Corn 

 he would not touch, chopped "wrinkles" and mussels he refused, 

 his dainty appetite could not longer endure fish, but experiments 

 with sea foods showed a strong liking on his part for clams, and it 

 now became a regular task for me to procure these and "shock out" 



