SHOOTING THE SALT-WATER COOT 
“From out the murmur of the waters, 
Voices of friends I used to know, 
There once again, seem they to call me 
Back to those days of long ago.” 
—Rhymes of the Stream and Forest. 
THE scoter or coot, of which there are several vari- 
eties, is a sea duck, a fish eater, one of the toughest 
and swiftest flyers of the duck family. Coot are found 
in many other places, but the New England coast is 
headquarters for shooting them. The northern migra- 
tion in the spring is usually out of sight of land, but the 
sportsman comes into his own when the birds return 
on their southern flight in the fall, as then they fly 
along the coast close to the shore. The best shooting, 
as with all wild fowl, is when the wind blows, but the 
beginner will not find coot shooting easy. The roll and 
dip of the boat, combined with the wind, makes condi- 
tions difficult enough for the most exacting. 
Boats go out every day in the season, afewin pleasant 
weather but more when a windy, cloudy night promises 
a heavy flight amd good shooting in the morning. At 
sunrise on such days, a dozen boats, a couple of gun- 
shots apart, will form in line, the nearest a half mile from 
shore, while often a second line of three or four boats 
will form up several gunshots behind the first line. The 
shooting on this second line is difficult, as the birds, 
already alarmed and shot at, are flying fast and high. 
149 
