BAY SHOOTING. 120, 



BAY SHOOTING. 



THE shooting of birds known as not true game, in 

 our bays, in and about the creeks of our harbors, 

 and in salt marshes, has of late years been so uncer- 

 tain that I have paid little or no attention to it. I made 

 my last trial two years ago, and gave it up as a kind 

 of hunting I could find but little pleasure in. Several 

 of my acquaintances who have followed it in its sea- 

 son as a specialty have the past few years been so un- 

 successful as to lead them to discard this kind of shoot- 

 ing altogether, on our New England coasts. I know 

 one sportsman who, last summer, went some distance 

 and spent two months in hunting bay birds, but came 

 home quite disgusted, having made no bag at all. 

 Sportsmen who are conveniently located in their 

 homes for watching the shooting-grounds for all kinds 

 of marsh-birds, and who take hold at the right time, 

 in a season of good flight, occasionally have fair luck. 

 And in some of the Southern and Middle States bor- 

 dering on the Atlantic, sportsmen often find splendid 

 shooting among various kinds of shore birds, as they 

 migrate North or return to their feeding-places at the 

 South. But the killing of these birds is ruled out 

 from the order of regular shooting. At the best it is 

 wearisome and dirty work, and the crack shot soon 

 tires of it. Almost any boy who can fire a gun can 

 6* i 



