82 BIEDS OF A MAEYLAiS-D FAEM. 



the table of ducks and other waterfowl that are fast becoming exter- 

 minated. Coots may be bought in Washington at the rate of three for 

 25 cents, while canvas-backs in good condition can not be had for less 

 than $3 a pair. 



Dr. B. W. Evermann, who has recently made a careful study of the 

 coot, says: 



I have been very much interested in the coot as an article of food. The opinion 

 of those who have put themselves on record in the books is almost unanimous that 

 the coot is worthless as food. And inquir}^ among my ornithological friends here 

 in Washington resulted in my finding only two or three who had ever tasted coot. 

 The majority of them seemed to regard eating coot very much as we regard eating 

 crow — a thing not to be thought of ! 



But my friends Dr. Fisher and Mr. William Palmer admit that they have eaten 

 coot and like it. They even say they regard coot as not at all inferior to the famous 

 canvas-back duck, and in this I agree with them fully. Coot, particularly young 

 ones, skinned and fried, or even old ones parboiled, then baked, are quite as deli- 

 cious as any duck I ever ate. 



It is, however, doubtless true that the delicacy of flavor, not only of the coot, but 

 also of the canvas-back and all other ducks, is largely determined by the kinds of 

 food they get. The wild celery ( ValUsneria spiralis) is sufficiently abundant in 

 Lake Maxinkuckee to give to the coot frequenting that lake a delicate flavor which 

 has received high praise from all who are familiar with it. « 



SHORE BIRDS. 



Woodcock {PJdloliela minor ^ PI. XV, fig. 2) are not uncommon at 

 Marshall Hall. On both the Marshall Hall and Hungerford farms 

 there are wooded dells of less than an acre in extent containing small, 

 sluggish, marsh}' streams communicating with the Potomac. In these 

 places during July woodcock are always to be found. They do not 

 feed much in the dells, but at dusk forage out in the neighboring 

 cornfields, and so destroy harmful insects. Thus, one bird, shot June 

 26, 1899, in this spot, had eaten wireworms and cutworms in addition 

 to earthworms, fly larv^, and May-flies. At the junction of two 

 bushy brooks on the lower part of the Hungerford place, woodcock 

 occur in the fall, and one collected November 15, 1900, had in its 

 stomach two beetle larvae, one grape seed, and two seeds of bastard 

 pennyroyal. 



Just below the Hungerford farm is a wooded swamp of a dozen 

 acres where woodcock are also to be found. It is impossible to pene- 

 trate into this swamp more than a few rods without sinking to the 

 knees in a black ooze composed of decayed vegetation. Woodcock 

 are not found in this soft morass, but are confined to the edges and 

 along a tin}' alder-fringed stream which issues from a spring at the 

 head of the swamp. A favorite feeding ground, located where this 

 stream enters the forested bod}- of the swamp amid elders, magnolias, 

 ashes, willows, and maples, was inspected in July, 1902, and in an area 



"Osprey, Vol. I (new- series), Xo. 4, p. 64, April, 1902. 



