The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1911-11-09
lingering death which is often supposed

DlTus lue wing. llPPCo Dllo ut'So WIZ
moment he strikes the water and he can
swim surprisingly long way, without
coming up. Sometimes indeed he appar-
emily never comes up and it is customary
among the hunters to declare that he
browns rather than be captured.
This may be so, though l do not see
how anyone is going to prove it. The
chances are large that the bird really
comes up again but keeps in the hollow
of waves or swims with beak only above
water and thus escapes observation. If
he does so escape he seeks refuge on
some isolated reef where food is to be
had and there keeps as quiet as possible
till the broken bone has chance to knit
and the wound to heal. Often birds are
shot that on being examined show evil
dence that this rest cure has been sue
cessful and the bird with an evidently
wounded and healed wing or leg is again
on the wing.
But the problem of successfully shoot
ing coot is nothing to the problem, to
the novice, of successfully cooking it.
To cook coot as one would black duck
or a mallard is to invite most poignant
disaster. Heat lets loose from the bird s
skin an oil, the odor alone of which will
empty room of the hungriest would-be
diners that nave ever been seen. Yet
the meat, properly prepared, is dark,
delicious dish, that the daintiest diner
should enjoy. The offensive oil must be
eliminated in some way. The safest is
to skin the bird, remove all superficial
fat, parboi it in at least two waters that
are carefully thrown away, and then do
as you see fit with the remaining mate
rial, preferably connecting an onion with
the process. By this means the stew,
the roast, the pie, that would otherwise
have been nightmare becomes dream
of delight to any who have the courage
to try it. That there are many such the
long lines of boats anchored off shore
any day at this season will attest.
With the coot often comes the old
squaws, variously known also as old
wife, olG-scold, swallow-tailed duck,
long tailed duck, and south-south-south
erlv The male birds are as vari-colored
as their names, being patched with
black, white, brown, and having an Or
ange band across the end of the bill.
The long tail feathers of the male are its
most striking characteristic and both
sexes seem to merit the name OF "old
scold, for when they collect on the sur
face in numbers they gable in scoldlng
tones that would do credit to the veriest
fishwives of fiction. They are especially
noisy toward spring and are addicted to
the curious bird sport OF towering.
In focks they swing in wide circles up
into the sky until almost out OF sight,
then turn and plunge earthward with
surprising velocity. Sometimes part OF
the flock will scatter and come down IN a
zigZag course. This seems to be done IN
pure sport on fair, still days, usually III
the afternoon.
The old-squaw is more rapid flyer
even than the coot and usually flies near
the surface of the water, diving from
the wing if suddenly startled when in
this low flight. AS they come skimming
the wave crests, crying "Owly. owIy,
owly," it takes a good shot to hit them.
Before rough weather these birds,
which irregularly visit the interior of the
country in winter, are said to fly over
lakes, crying ''South-south-southerly, y
whence the name under which they
sometimes go. This, | fancy, is only
another way of wording the "Owly-owly-
owly" cry.
With the coot come occasionally other
sea-loving divers, whistlers, harlequins
and buffeheads, these last the most eX-
pert underwater birds of the lot. They
are stubby, plump little fellows, most
beautifully patched with white, blue,
brown and black. and they can get under
water quicker than any known bird, I'M
less it is a grebe. That they feed to a
considerable extent on small fish which
they capture by pursuing them under
water shows them to be possessed OF ex-
traordinary agility beneath the surface
as we'll as above.
Just because people do not know how
or will not take the trouble to cook them
coot-fashion all these ducks are less
sought than other more obviously pala-
table varieties. Farther south, where
black duck, mallard, teal and others are
to be found wintering, pot-hunters and
sportsmen alike do not waste time and
powder on the coot and their kind, hence
in that circumstance alone they have a
better chance to survive IN numbers, as
thew have, while some of the more pal
atable birds have been almost if not al
together shot out of existence. Thirty
years ago focks of green and blue-wing-
ed teal were fairly abundant here in au-
tumn Twenty years before that they
crossed eastern Massachusetts in great
numbers every fall. l. is years since
have seen one or have heard of one be-
ing shot hereabouts and both varieties
would seem to be passing rapidly down
the road to complete extinction.
Yet one cannot say with surety that
the guns have done this. The black
duck still pass in considerable numbers
though these are evidently not so great
as they were a generation ago. Yet
black ducks are more desirable as game
birds in the hunters bag than are teal.
They are bigger mark, too, though
that does not necessarily make them any
easier to hit. On the other hand there
is the case of the Labrador duck, now,
without doubt, extinct, the last speci-
men having been taken at Grand Manan
just forty years ago. Forty-two speci-
mems of the Labrador duck exist still in
collections, and that is all we have left
on earth of duck of the coot type, that
half century ago or more migrated
with these in great numbers. These
birds passed before the days of huge
hunting population and pump guns, al
most before the time of breech-loaders.
They were no more palatable than coot
and no more easily shot, yet they dwin-
died and disappeared. Why should
three varieties of coot, Is well as buffle-
head, whistlers, and harlequins, still fly
up and down our coast in considerable
numbers to this day while their former