cooT. 4.25 
once, and only once, alluded to, under date of 1583— 
*Ttm a watter hen kylled wt the gun.”—A first victim 
evidently to the then new weapon of destruction, and 
affording to the unskilled gunner of those days, the easy 
shot still sought for by the school boy or other tyro in 
the use of firearms. 
FULICA ATRA, Linneus. 
COOT. 
The Coot, though an abundant species in Norfolk, 
is not so generally distributed as that last described, 
preferring the open waters of the broads and meres, 
extensive lakes, and large reedy ponds, to the smaller 
coverts that content the more familiar water-hen. 
' Except in close vicinity to the broads themselves, it 
is seldom seen on our rivers, but in the neighbourhood 
of Surlingham and Rockland, on the Yare, its peculiar 
cry may be heard from the deep sedgy ronds; and in 
the wilder portions of the Bure and the Ant, winding 
their sluggish course through the very heart of the 
Broad district, this bird abounds in the reedy borders, 
and is heard and seen at every bend of the stream. 
It is plentiful, also, in the Fen districts, both to the 
south and south-west of the county, and a few breed 
annually in more central localities, such as Scoulton 
Mere, the haunt of the black-headed gulls; and on such 
of the meres about Wretham as afford sufficient harbour. 
Even Foulmere, though but a short distance from a farm- 
house with all the busy sounds of human habitation, has 
attractions for this species, in a belt of rushes at one 
end of the water, but not so Ringmere or Langmere, 
though situated on a still wilder portion of Wretham 
heath. A few, I believe, are also to be met with in 
one 
