THE WINTER YELLOW-LEGS 183 



as too often happens, the birds are allowed to 

 settle in among the decoys and feed while the 

 ' ' sportsman ' ' waits until a number are bunched 

 along the muddy shore of the pool where a rak- 

 ing shot with the first barrel shall make sure of 

 a bagful to display to admirers at home. The 

 average marsh bird is confiding and trustful in 

 disposition and so readily induced to give the 

 shooter a chance that there is really no excuse 

 for such a custom as this. Let one of the whole 

 long-legged race come within hearing of a 

 plover call and the rest of the story lies alto- 

 gether with the gun artist. Of course now and 

 then there is a shore bird shooter with loftier 

 ambitions. Such a one may graduate into the 

 higher schools of upland gunnery, and for him 

 these furnish good practice for the making of a 

 wing shot. 



The "Winter Yellow-leg," so called in dis- 

 tinction from the smaller "Summer," is not a 

 true plover, nor is the latter, both belonging to 

 the Tattler family, a group more nearly related 

 to the snipes. The kinship is plainly indicated 

 by the bill, long, and somewhat sensitive at the 

 tip, as in Wilson's snipe, but in the northeast 

 hardly one gunner in a hundred ever thinks of 



