392 FEATHERED GAME 
close enough to be struck with an oar,—I may 
say that they make it an invariable rule to do 
this when the gunner has taken the shells out 
of his gun or laid it aside to pick up his decoys 
after a morning’s cootless waiting in the cold. 
One oddity in the gentle art of duck-shooting 
is the practice of ‘‘hollerin’ coots,’’ that is, of 
making a great noise when a flock is passing 
by out of shot, when they will often turn and 
come to the decoys. The report of a gun some- 
times has the same effect, but we New England- 
ers are too thrifty to waste powder and lead 
where our vocal organs will serve as well. 
Next to decoying the use of the ‘‘gunning 
float’’ is the most effective method of killing 
Coots. The ‘‘gunning float’’ is a long, low 
eraft, drawing but little water and showing 
only a foot or so above the surface when prop- 
erly trimmed down with ballast. In the fall, 
for use in the open water they are ‘‘trimmed’’ 
with ‘‘rockweed;’’? in the marshes with 
‘‘thatch.’? In the spring and winter months 
the proper thing is snow and ice to represent 
a drifting ice-cake. It takes sharp eyes to de- 
tect the dangerous one among the many harm- 
less pieces of ice when the gunner, clad in his 
