PKEFACE. 



In preparing this work, after I had written the 

 account of Florida, which, as a sporting country, 

 ■ had never been fully described, and was to occupy 

 the principal part of my attention, and when I came 

 to the second division, that relating to the game- 

 birds of our waters and coasts generally, I found so 

 much in a book on a kindred subject, which I had 

 written years ago, that I concluded I could do no 

 better than quote from it freely. The directions 

 therein given are as correct now as then, the in- 

 formation as well founded, and I hope the reader 

 will find the stories of sporting excursions as 

 interesting. 



My main purpose is to call the attention of my 

 brother sportsmen to that paradise of the devotee 

 of the rod and gun, the Southern Peninsula of our 

 Atlantic States. Game is disappearing from our 

 home country; woodcock and ruffed grouse have 

 almost been exterminated; ducks are less plentiful; 

 bay snipe now make many of their flights directly 

 at sea without passing over the land; and if we are 

 to obtain satisfactory shooting, we must go some 

 distance for it. Many persons who are fond of out- 

 door life cannot stand exposure to cold weather, and 

 still more, to keep up their interest, must have the 

 chance of making a larger bag than they can count 

 on at the North. Yachtsmen are in the habit of 



