212 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 



rail 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 is to 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, 



