SHOOTING THE SALT-WATER COOT 153 
the day before a storm?’’’ George settled himself com- 
fortably in his chair and lighted his pipe before he 
answered. 
““All ducks seem to know twenty-four hours in 
advance, when a big storm is coming. My idea is they 
smell it in the air. You have all probably noticed the 
peculiar dampness in the air, half an hour before a 
summer thunderstorm when you say to yourself, ‘Hol- 
loa, it’s going to rain.” Why should not ducks, with 
their developed sense of smell, predict a storm twenty- 
four hours in advance, instead of thirty minutes as in 
our case?’’ ‘‘Why, yes,’ interrupted the blonde 
gentleman, ‘“‘I have noticed, now you speak of it, a 
dampness or rather a certain softness in the air a little 
before a summer thunderstorm starts in, but I don’t see 
how that proves that a duck can scent a bad storm 
twenty-four hours in advance.”’ 
“Let me tell you,’’ replied George, ‘‘a little experi- 
ence I had with coot once that I shall never forget. 
One autumn, some years ago, I came down to the shanty 
for the early September shooting. As you all know it’s 
a long wait between seasons and I was hungry for a 
shoot. Unfortunately it was too warm for either com- 
fort or sport. After a few days of miserable luck, I 
decided, while waiting for a change in the weather, to 
run down to Plymouth and make a little visit with an 
old shooting friend. 
“The Plymouth shooting is mostly off Gurnet Head. 
We sailed over there the first afternoon, just to see how 
things looked. Landing at the lighthouse we walked 
over to Gurnet Head and sat down on the rocks. 
Neither of us expected to see a single coot. It was too 
hot and calm. 
“““We have great sport here sometimes,’ said my 
