40) 
ies, &c., and sets before the tired duck shooter 
a substantial bill of fare, and provides a clean, 
comfortable bed on which he can rest from 
the fatigues of the day’s sport. ~ 
West Hampton, also on the Sag Harbor 
branch of the Long Island Railroad, is an ex- 
cellent spot for duck, quail and woodcock, 
while a good timé for a day or two may he had 
amongst the bay birds at Good Ground, where 
William N. Lane knows so well how to play 
the parts of host, guide and companion. At 
Southampton, a sequestered marine village 
near the ocean, one can get good fishing, and 
in the Fall excellent shooting; quail were said 
to be quite numerous last season. Bridge- 
hampton is also a good place to stop at, where 
you can have either salt or fresh water angling, 
shoot woodcock, bay birds, quail and rabbits ; 
good accommodations can be had in the vil- 
lage. 
Greenport, the terminal station of the rail- 
road, is reached in about four hours from 
Hunter’s Point, and can boast of good hotel 
accommodations. A row boat will land the 
hunter on Shelter Island in a few minutes, 
and here, during the latter part of November 
and in December, a fair shot by using decoys 
can strike a barrel fuil of nearly all kinds and 
varieties of ducks, except the canvas back. On 
the low lands of this beautiful island, the 
ducks swarm in myriads at this season of the 
year, and from the day of legal shooting one 
can bag all the quail he can carry. Jamesport 
on this branch of the railroad is a good place 
to spend a few days in fishing, sailing and 
boating in the Summer; and in the Fall the 
shooting is good, quail and other small game 
being quite abundant. 
The most noted and richly stocked private 
ponds on the island are Maitland’s, Phillip’s, 
and Stump Ponds, near Islip, and the Massa- 
piqua Pond at Oyster Bay. 
The entire surface of the Island is diversified 
by ponds and extensive swamps, which send 
forth copious streams, clear and cold. Of these 
Peconic River is the largest, measuring about 
sixteen miles. Nearly all are well stocked 
with trout, but the most 
Pond, Ronkonkoma, Coram, Great Pond, Fort 
Pond, Killis Pond, and the waters at Smith- 
town, Carman’s, Islip and Oyster Bay, the last 
noted are Success | 
THE SPORTSMAN’S AND TOURIST’S GUIDE. 
being a pleasant place to visit for recreation, 
with either gun or dog, fishing tackle, trolling 
tackle, or no tackle at all. For the man of 
over-worked brain, who would seek rest near 
the metropolis, Oyster Bay is the place; good 
trouting, good trolling, and good snipeing are 
to be had here if anywhere; the New Bridge 
Creek and Cedar Swamp will probably yield 
the best sport, after testing which, let the an- 
cler go on to Patchogue, and put up at Austin 
Roe’s hotel, where he will find a landlord who 
owns rights in nearly all the ponds and creeks 
in the neighborhood. There he can fish as 
long as he pleases, free of charge and take 
home with him all the trout his luck or skill 
may bring to his creel. 
The Great South Bay of Long Island is a 
land-locked sheet of water, extending for some 
seventy miles and is from five to six miles in 
width, enclosed between the sandy beach of 
the sea shore and the meadows of the main- 
land. At any time between the middle of July 
and the middle of September, this bay is a 
favorite hsunt of immense flocks of all deserip- 
tions of bay snipe, including the curlew, willet, 
martin, dowitch, yellowleg, brant bird, and the 
gray, golden, and black-breasted plover, and 
later in the season abounds with teal, black 
duek, and broadbills, which will afford sufficient 
amusement until the weather becomes too 
cold to handle a gun. Good accommodations 
ean be had at any of the little villages that 
skirt the shore, such as Babylon, Islip, Mo- 
riches, &c., and from which the sniper can 
readily cross the bay to the beach for the day's 
shooting, as these birds follow the beach shore 
of the bay, and are very seldom shot on the 
mainl«nd shore; the golden plover and yellow- 
legs are about the only exceptions to this rule, 
and they being fond of the feed in fresh water 
ponds, are often found in large flocks around 
the fresh meadows on the main, When strong 
easterly or westerly winds prevail the bay is 
very rough, and it is not always pleasant or 
even safe to cross in a sail boat, so that we 
would advise Fire Island, Bellport, or Fire 
Place as objective points; they are near the 
eastern terminus of the bay, so that from them 
both the meadows and the beach can be easily 
reached, and in the neigborhood of the last 
named there are also some fine trout streams, 
~~ 
