BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 93 
ral others do the same. The name, however, is not 
satisfactory on account of its similarity to the brant 
or brent-goose ; and probably the scientific desig- 
nation, turnstone, if it were at all in common 
acceptation, would be better. It isto be hoped these 
names will at some day be harmonized by universal 
consent, and these pages will at least make mutual 
comprehension open the way for that desirable result. 
The sickle-bill, jack-curlew, marlin, willet, golden- 
plover, yelper, dowitcher, and krieker, are excellent ; 
and the ring-tailed marlin, black-breast plover, yel- 
low-legs, and robin-snipe, are at least descriptive. 
Were these generally accepted, a simple and tole- 
rably accurate system of nomenclature would be 
obtained; and it has been my effort, while placing 
the preferable name at the head of the description of 
each variety, to collate all the other names that in 
any section of our vast territory are applied to the 
same bird. In this attempt I can only be partially 
successful; for the ingenuity of the American people 
in coining new names, added to a profound ignorance 
of ornithology, has produced a confusion that no one 
man can reduce to order. 
Bay-snipe, except the plovers, kriekers, and a few 
others, are not considered delicate eating, contract- 
ing along the salt marshes a sedgy flavor; but on 
the shores of the western lakes, where the fresh 
water appears to remove this peculiarity, the yellow- 
legs and yelpers—which are often found in consi- 
derable numbers, and are called by the general 
appellation of plovers—are almost equal in tender, 
