408 With Rod and Gun in New England 



birds in heavy northeasters are driven in on the south shore from Boston 

 Light to Plymouth, and afford at such times good shooting, but in ordinary 

 weather they pass several miles off shore, and even directly from Cape Ann 

 to Cape Cod. They have become so accustomed to the decoys that the 

 older birds on approaching them will turn out to sea and give them the 

 widest possible berth. A wounded coot is a difficult bird to secure, espec- 

 ially if he happens to be a sagacious black white-wing. Often he will 

 submerge all of his body, leaving only his bill out of the water, and some- 

 times will dive, keeping hold of the kelp on the bottom, and drown in that 

 position. Many coots disappear entirely and are never seen again, being 

 seized by seals or by the goose-fish. Sometimes a coot will be picked 

 up and placed in the boat, apparently dead, and subsequently revive and 

 jump from the boat, never being seen again. Assuming that coots fly at 

 an average rate of sixty miles an hour, and loons at one hundred miles an 

 hour, it is easy to imagine the force with which they will strike any object 

 they encounter in their fall and the short time it will take for them to reach it. 

 On one occasion the stern of a new boat was broken out by the fall of a 

 loon, and it is remarkable that serious accidents do not more often result 

 from this cause. 



Butterbur Coot. 



The enthusiastic sportsman who would hunt coots must be an early 

 riser, and if his decoys are in place half an hour before sunrise, he is likely to 

 have some of the best shots of the day. If the wind is from a favorable 

 quarter, the birds commence their flight as soon as they can see. Thirty 

 or forty decoys in strings of six or seven each are ample, and there is an 

 opportunity for skill in their arrangement. The boats are from twelve to 

 fifteen feet in length, and they must be good sea boats. If the sportsman 

 keeps an account of the number of shells he fires, he will find that the 

 percentage of birds actually bagged will be less than might be supposed. 



