BAY-SNIPE AND OTHER WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 23 



brant-bird, yellow-shank, robin-snipe, dawitch, kreekers, 

 sanderlings, ox-eyes, ring-neck, etc., etc., rise from their 

 submerged feeding-grounds, they will pass through 

 the various leads and thoroughfares in great numbers, 

 and, enticed by the sight of the stools and the simulated 

 whistles of the gunners, they will approach, and, hover- 

 ing, will alight among or near the decoys, and receive the 

 deadly shot, after returning to their crippled and flutter- 

 ing mates, and so falling to a repeated volley of 

 No. 10 pellets. The black-breast plovers arrive here 

 in May from their winter quarters in the South, and 

 after delaying for a few days on the bars, beaches, 

 and uplands, they leave in a body for the North, 

 where the young broods are hatched and raised, and in 

 the months of August and September they return to 

 us again, reinforced by their now well-grown offspring. 

 Though shy, they are enticed within shot by the decoys, 

 and their imitated plaintive notes. In autumn they 

 are distributed along the coast^ subsisting on minute 

 shell-fish and marine insects, on which fare they become 

 fat. They remain with us until September, when they 

 begin to pass southward, their migrating course extending 

 to the southernmost extremity of the Union. The brant- 

 bird, which we have often seen mixed with the black- 

 breast flocks, is very prettily marked; mingling with 

 its plumage are white, black, reddish-brown, and black- 

 ish-brown feathers. It is commonly known as the 

 u horse-foot snipe," from its feeding on the spawn of the 

 king-crab, or horse-foot, as it is termed. It arrives on the 

 coast early in May, from the South, and leaves for its 

 breeding -place in the North by the end of May. It 

 returns to the bays of Jersey and Long Island in Sep- 

 tember, where it remains until late iri autumn. On the 

 New England coast, we have recognized it chiefly under 

 the name of "turn-stone," from its habit of turning the 



