24 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



pebbles of the beach in search of food. In its ways it is 

 rather solitary, and is seen singly or in pairs only, skim- 

 ming the beach in search of marine insects and minute 

 shell-fish. It is then in plump condition, and considered 

 a delicacy. In the spring it moves with the black-breast 

 flocks, but at other seasons it does not seem to be gathered 

 in numbers with other migratory birds. The most numer- 

 ous fowl, perhaps, on our coast are the various tribes 

 of coot, old squaws, and shell-drake, and there should be 

 no restriction on the allowed time for shooting. The 

 laws of New York have provided that no geese, black 

 duck, shell-drake, coot, or old squaws should be killed on 

 Long Island in certain prescribed months; but there 

 should be nothing to forbid the killing of these last- 

 mentioned fowl, as they are not valued for food or market 

 on Long Island or Jersey; they afford good sport, and it 

 should be left discretionary with sportsmen to kill or 

 spare them. There is no law in New England placing 

 any such prohibitions on shooting them, and nearly all 

 the fowl-shooting on that coast consists of coot, old 

 squaws, shell-drake, and loon. We have for years enjoyed 

 that sport at some of the best points from Maine to 

 Seconnet Point, Rhode Island, and always found it to 

 be good. It is followed in Massachusetts Bay by 

 hundreds and thousands of gunners, with success and 

 satisfaction. But there these fowl are held in fair esti- 

 mation for the table, and fowlers come from remote 

 places in the interior to favorite locations on the coast 

 to enjoy their annual sport. Wherever there is a jutting 

 point or head-land, with a reef of outlying rocks project- 

 ing into the sea, there along the extended coast will be 

 seen long lines of the fowlers' boats, tossing on the 

 waves. At some such point we have seen a fleet of from 

 ten to fifty "dories" strung out and ready for the flight 

 of the coot. There are coot of many varieties: old 



