430 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



not so vague a mode of calculation as at first appears, 

 for coots swim evenly at regular distances from each 

 other without huddling together into dense masses like 

 wild fowl." The same author speaks of the moor- 

 buzzard or marsh-harrier being in former days useful 

 to the .fowler, "in driving the coots together so as 

 to afford a better shot." He has known thirty-one 

 killed at one discharge, when thus driven in by a 

 pair of harriers. This habit of flocking together when 

 attacked by the larger raptores is likewise referred to by 

 Sir Thomas Browne, who, speaking of the great flocks 

 of coots that in his time collected on the " Broad 

 waters," remarks, " upon the appearance of a kite or 

 buzzard, I have seen them unite from all parts of the 

 shore, in strange numbers, when, if the kite stoops 

 near them, they will fling up and spread such a flash of 

 water with their wings, that they will endanger the 

 kite, and so keep him off again and again in open 

 opposition ; and a handsome provision they make about 

 their nest against the same bird of prey, by bending 

 and twisting the rushes and reeds so about them^ that 

 they cannot stoop at the young ones or the dam while 

 she sitteth." With regard to this latter statement, 

 however, if such a device was ever practised by the 

 coots in former days, for the protection of themselves 

 and young, unquestionably their descendants, no longer 

 in terror of moor-buzzards or kites, adopt no such 

 precautions. According to Messrs. Sheppard and 

 Whitear, also, the same tactics are displayed by the 

 coots when attacked by the larger gulls, as they state 

 that on one occasion they observed the former "on 

 the approach of their enemy, rush together from all 

 quarters, and form a close, round, compact body, 

 appearing like bees in the act of swarming. The 

 gull kept hovering over their heads, and frequently 

 dashed within a yard or two of them. Whenever he 



