392 FEATHERED GAME 



close enough to be struck with an oar, — I may 

 say that they make it an invariable rule to do 

 this when the gunner has taken the shells out 

 of his gun or laid it aside to pick up his decoys 

 after a morning's cootless waiting in the cold. 

 One oddity in the gentle art of duck-shooting 

 is the practice of ''hollerin' coots," that is, of 

 making a great noise when a flock is passing 

 by out of shot, when they will often turn and 

 come to the decoys. The report of a gun some- 

 times has the same effect, but we New England- 

 ers are too thrifty to waste powder and lead 

 where our vocal organs will serve as well. 



Next to decoying the use of the *' gunning 

 float" is the most effective method of killing 

 Coots. The "gunning float" is a long, low 

 craft, drawing but little water and showing 

 only a foot or so above the surface when prop- 

 erly trimmed down with ballast. In the fall, 

 for use in the open water they are ''trimmed" 

 with ''rockweed;" in the marshes with 

 ''thatch." In the spring and winter months 

 the proper thing is snow and ice to represent 

 a drifting ice-cake. It takes sharp eyes to de- 

 tect the dangerous one among the many harm- 

 less pieces of ice when the gunner, clad in his 



