COOT. 431 



flew to a distance the coots dispersed, and again at his 

 return flocked together." Mr. Bising, of Horsey, has 

 a young glaucous gull in his collection, which was killed 

 in November, 1847, in the act of pouncing upon a dead 

 coot. The coot was shot as it rose from a reed-bush, 

 and the gull, which, with several more was flying over 

 at the time, instantly pounced upon the coot, and was 

 shot whilst standing on its intended prey. 



The custom of attacking the coots with boats and 

 guns, when collected in large bodies either in spring 

 or autumn, is referred to by Messrs. Sheppard and 

 Whitear,* in 1825, and is still adopted on some of 

 our larger broads. At Hickling, where these birds 

 collect together in immense numbers, a coot shooting 

 party is an annual institution. A day being fixed for 

 the sport, boats, filled with gunners, assemble from the 

 neighbouring villages to join the proprietor and his 

 friends in a general fusillade, and outsiders, posted in 

 every available spot upon the banks and marshes, are 

 prepared to wait for a chance shot. The coots are then 

 driven out of the reed-beds and bushes on to the open 

 water, and the boats, advancing in line, work them 

 gradually up towards one end of the broad. When 

 thus closely pressed, they rise en masse, and sweeping 

 back over the heads of the gunners, the battue opens 

 on all sides, a dropping fire being kept up from the 

 marshes as the birds scatter in their flight. The same 

 method of collecting and driving is repeated, as soon 

 as the coots have settled on the further extremity of 

 the water, and this several times in succession, until 

 the survivors are fairly driven from the broad, and 



* The same authors also state that the fowlers on the Stour, 

 were accustomed to approach the coots upon the ooze, "by con- 

 cealing themselves behind a screen made of bushes, placed upon 

 a sledge and driven before them." 



