Coot Shooting in New England. 205 



"genus coot." In no sort of shooting do 

 hunters ever get aroused to so high a 

 pitch of excitement as while gunning 

 for these heavy sea-ducks. The birds are 

 abundant and are constantly on the move 

 from one feeding-ground to another. The 

 fresh ocean breezes key the hunters up to 

 the last degree of manly vigor, and as the 

 light boats ride the long swells as grace- 

 fully as a swallow floats through the air, 

 the boom and roar of the surf among the 

 rocks on the shore inspires the gunners 

 with its freedom. The boats are swing- 

 ing on their long anchor-lines twenty rods 

 apart ; the ducks are flying swiftly through 

 between the boats, and every moment the 

 heavy ten-bores are ringing out loud and 

 clear, and the puffs of thick smoke are 

 borne rapidly away on the breeze. Here 

 a white-wing, the leader of the flock, struck 

 with the Number 45, halts and falters and 

 plunges headlong into the waves ; there a 

 skunkhead, proud in his speed, wilts sud- 

 denly high in the air down, down, down 

 he comes, and the spray flies in every 

 direction as he surges heavily into the 



