COOT. 433 



coot will carry off a considerable amount of shot if 

 planted behind the wings. 



Bishop Stanley thus alludes to the reluctance with 

 which the coots quit the broads for the coast in severe 

 weather : "On a mere, where, from constant observation, 

 we knew the precise number, they would remain as long 

 as a few square yards of water were unfrozen, sitting on 

 the ice, or swimming with a sort of despairing rest- 

 lessness round their rapidly contracting space, as if 

 unwilling, while hope of thaw was left, to seek shelter 

 elsewhere." Mr. Lubbock also remarks "when the 

 water in general is frozen, they will crowd into the wake 

 made by the swans,* which always remains open long 

 after the main pool is frozen. An opening of this kind 

 is sometimes entirely filled with coots. They appear 

 to dislike the migration to salt water, which is then 

 their only resource, and to be willing to undergo any 

 hardship rather than leave their beloved broad." I 

 have found them in severe seasons, at Surlingham, when 

 only a small channel remained open in the deepest parts 

 of the broad still endeavouring to conceal themselves 

 amongst the reeds and rushes. Even the noise made in 

 cutting through the ice in order to bring the boat nearer 

 to the edge of a reed-bed has failed to disturb them, 

 but the dog finding a firm footing amongst the reeds, 

 has soon compelled them, one after another, to take wing, 

 thus affording a succession of easy shots, and I have 

 known six or seven started from an almost incredibly 

 small space. Many, however, when shot in this manner 

 are lost from their breaking through the ice in their 

 fall and drifting under its surface; and I once proved 

 to demonstration, by this kind of shooting, the tendency 

 of wire cartridges to carry like a ball, as a coot that fell 

 to a very long shot upon the ice broke through, and 

 in the same hole I picked up the bird and the empty 

 cartridge case. 

 3 K 



