BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 211 



snipe, and beach-birds — names that might with justice 

 be applied to tlie entire class, and which are so 

 utterly confused, that persons from different sections 

 of the country do not know what others are tnlking 

 about. To make matters worse, the scientific gen- 

 tlemen have stepped in, and after indulging in plenty 

 of bad Latin, have added fresh Englisli appellations, 

 more unmeaning and less appropriate if possible than 

 the common ones. 



From this mass of incongruities the writer has 

 endeavored, while preserving the best name, to select 

 the one in general use, bearing in mind that names 

 are mere substitutes, and not descriptive adjectives. 

 The name frost-bird or frost-snipe — wdiich belongs to 

 entirely different creatures — is applicable to every 

 bird that appears after a frost, and as nearly a hundred 

 varieties are in this category, it is not distinctive ; 

 the names meadow-snipe and beach-bird are ridicu- 

 lous, but the latter, being applied to an unimportant 

 class, is allowed to stand. The snipe that is herein 

 called a krieker, or, as it may be spelled, creaker, 

 which utters a hoarse, creaking note, is called in vari- 

 ous places meadow-snipe — although most of the bay- 

 birds haunt the meadows ; fat-bird, whereas others 

 are equally flit ; and short neck, in spite of the fact 

 that its neck is longer than some species; while 

 ornithologists call it pectoral sandpiper, probably 

 because it has a breast. So also with the brant-bird, 

 which is called on the coast of New Jersey horsefoot- 

 snipe, because it feeds on the spawn ot the horse- 

 foot ; notwithstanding that the yellow-legs and seve- 



