BAY-SHOOTING. 275 
rarer than the preceding. These are respectively known 
to the gunners, as the “marlin,” and the “ring-tailed 
marlin,” and are famous for their watchfulness, which will 
scarce admit of approach, unless one, by chance, be 
brought down wounded, when the flock will circle around 
him, plaintively screaming, and will even allow several 
shots to be fired into them in succession. 
It is singular, that while every bird of all the tribe has 
its own peculiar name among the baymen and gunners, 
who make confusion worse confounded by their nomencla- 
tive barbarisms, not one by any accident stumbles on its 
true denomination. 
Thus the red-breasted sandpiper, Tringa Islandica, 
which is one of the most numerous and best of these birds, 
and a general favorite with the gunners, as being easily 
whistled to the stools, and consequently affording great 
sport, becomes the “robin snipe,” owing to its resem- 
blance to the migratory thrush, or common robin of this 
country. In winter, the plumage of this bird turns gray 
above and pure white below, when he becomes the “ white 
robin snipe.” 
In like manner, the red-backed sandpiper, Tringa 
Alpina, becomes the “ black-breasted plover,” and when 
his plumage is changed in cold weather, the “ winter snipe.” 
He flies quickly in crowded flocks, and wheels frequently 
as if by a signal, when great numbers are often killed at a 
shot. 
This confusion of names is very troublesome to the 
young sportsman, who has any turn for natural history— 
for the furtherance of which beautiful study alone, I think 
