Fwd: Re: Shooting coots

["Jim Tate" <>]

Further on the American Coots in California...

Around California's San Joaquin Delta the coots were extremely abundant in the 1960s and the California Fish and Game wanted to reduce the population.  The "whitebills" would work their way out of the ponds and lakes and graze on the mowed grass along the road.  When a herd of several hundred walked across the road there was often mass mayhem as they ran (waddled) back to the water in herds.  They seldom took off from land.  We began to refer to them as "shmoos," the characters in Al Capp's that would offer themselves up as food (chicken, pork, or other depending on how they were cooked).  Here is a link to the shmoo... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmoo.  Yes, they really helped the poor graduate student's food budget, even if they did taste a little fishy.      -TATE