134 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN’S. 
possible gallinule. In the course of the trip 
we saw, besides the species already named, 
great blue and little blue herons, pied-billed 
grebes, coots, cormorants, a flock of small 
sandpipers (on the wing), buzzards, vul- 
tures, fish-hawks, and innumerable red- 
winged blackbirds. 
Three days afterward we went up the 
river. At the upper end of the lake were 
many white-billed coots (Mulica ameri- 
cana); so many that we did our best to 
count them as they rose, flock after flock, 
dragging their feet over the water behind 
them with a multitudinous splashing noise. 
There were a thousand, at least. They had 
an air of being not so very shy, but they 
were nobody’s fools. “See there!” my boy 
would exclaim, as a hundred or two of them 
dashed past the boat; “see how they keep 
just out of range! ” 
We were hardly on the river itself before 
he fell into a state of something like frenzy 
at the sight of an otter swimming before us, 
showing its head, and then diving. He 
made after it in hot haste, and fired I know 
not how many times, but all for nothing. 
He had killed several before now, he said, 
