LIST OF BIRDS. 181 



A LIST OF BIRDS, 



&c. &c. 



WHICH ARE MOST COMMONLY FOLLOWED BY 

 SHOOTING SPORTSMEN, 



ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED, 



WITH 



THEIR PROPER NAMES, AS SELECTED BY BEWICK; THE 

 LATIN AND FRENCH FOR THEM, AS GIVEN BY LIN- 

 NJEUS AND BUFFON; AND OCCASIONAL DIRECTIONS 

 RELATIVE TO SHOOTING THEM. 



IN selecting this list, it becomes a question where to 

 draw the line between those which are, and those which 

 are not considered sporting birds ; but as many shooters 

 would be eager to kill what others would scarcely deign 

 to fire at, it is presumed that the better way will be, 

 not only to insert those which are followed by the keen 

 sportsman, but all that are commonly shot at for diver- 

 sion or practice. 



With regard to the proper names of land birds, there 

 is little difficulty in selecting them ; but for those of 

 water birds, and particularly wildfowl, there are so many 

 provincial terms, that it would be a dull and endless task 

 to construe the appellations given them by the decoy- 

 men, poulterers, and gunners, into their proper names 

 in natural history. For example: the dunbirds are 

 called redheads on the South and West coasts, and 

 Parkers or half-birds in the fens. This is also a general 

 term here for all birds under the size of the common 



