BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 97 
who could do better. At Quogue, decoys were first 
used about the year 1850, and the best day’s sport of 
late was one hundred and. thirty-eight birds. 
West of Quogue there are some snipe, and occa- 
sionally a good flight at South Oyster Bay, and 
more rarely still at Rockaway ; but the large birds 
are not numerous north of New Jersey. Squan 
Beach, Barnegat, Egg Harbor, and Brigantine Beach 
are famous for the large birds—the sickle-bills, cur- 
lews, willets, and marlins—that visit them; the 
same number of shots cannot be obtained as at 
Quogue, but the bag is larger. At the former 
places there is also a flight, of greater or less extent, 
of dowitchers and yellow-legs, but these are not so 
abundant as along the margin of the Great South 
Bay of Long Island. On the other hand, a bag of 
one hundred of the larger varieties is not unusual; 
while at Egg Harbor the robin-snipe, which affect 
marshy islands are exceedingly numerous. 
5 
