MU. J. H. GURNEY ON COOT SHOOTING ON HICKLING BROAD. 2G9 
fly very fast they are exceedingly tough, being defended with 
a black armour of feathers and down (this latter as in the Moor-hen 
existing from infancy), through which No. 5 shot will hardly 
penetrate. 
As usual, nothing would make them quit their beloved Hickling 
Broad, and again and again the same “ruse ’’was tried, but the 
poor Coots could not grasp the situation. They were driven first 
to one end and then to the other, and had to run the fusilade or 
die on the water, but I saw none shot swimming. It was a still 
day, but if there was much wind I should think the Coots would be 
wild, especially if they had already been shot at once or twice. The 
tenacity with which they cling to their lake is probably in part 
because they are day feeders, for at night Coots often fly long 
distances of their own accord, when their crv can be heard in the 
darkness, and in the south of France it has been noticed on the 
Rhone that after a battue of this kind, when night comes the bulk 
of them go away. 
I only saw one Coot actually quit the water and go away inland, 
but some were flying aimlessly round the edge, and these had to 
reckon with concealed gunners on the bank. Including what were 
killed by the latter, the total bag, as far as it could be totalled by 
Mr. Bird was 910, and that gentleman, to whom I am indebted for 
many particulars, considers this the largest bag ever made. A great 
many Pochard Ducks were also flying about, but they were much 
wilder than the Coots and only three were brought to bag, though 
Mr. Bird and I estimated the number at quite 400. I learn from 
that gentleman that of the 910 Coots, 683 were shot by the 
flotilla of boats, and 75 by two boats stationary at the entrance to 
Heigham Sounds, and the rest by people on shore, to which I may 
add that I saw an evident poacher making off with a few which 
were not of his own shooting. 
Several circumstances contributed to the day’s success, but 
Mr. Bird thinks what chiefly accounted for this unprecedented 
show of Coots was the fact of the channel through Hickling Broad 
having been kept free from ice by the passage of wherries. This 
too would induce many Coots from smaller broads which had 
become frozen during the recent hard weather to retreat to these 
congenial open “ wakes” at Hickling. 
Mr. Bird is also of opinion that many more Coots nest round 
