410 
FOREST AND STREAM 
August, 1919 
NOTES ON SHORE BIRD SHOOTING 
THE DAYS ARE CLOSE AT HAND WHEN THE HUNTER. SNUGLY HIDDEN IN HIS BLIND 
CN BEACH OR MEADOW. CAN ENJOY THE FIRST REAL SHOOTING OF THE SEASON 
T he opportunity to break the long 
closed season comes to the devotee 
of the scatter gun with the open- 
ing of the shore bird season. To those 
who have only had the gun from the 
rack to pace back and forth on the 
board walk at the country club, smash- 
ing clays, the coming of the days 
when, behind the decoys on beach or 
meadow, he can exercise his skill in 
“whistling in” the various bay snipe 
as they are called, are hailed with joy 
by the man who has once tried this 
sport. From the Bay of Fundy in the 
north to the Florida reefs there are miles 
of the Atlantic Coast that at one time 
or another throughout the year are vis- 
ited for a short or long period by the 
bay snipe, beach birds or shore birds, 
and not only are they to be found along 
our Atlantic and our Pacific seaboards 
as well, but inland along the various wa- 
By EDWARD RUSSELL WILBUR 
terways of the United States, on the 
lake shores, on the prairies, marshes, 
and even the upland pastures of the 
middle and Atlantic States. Those who 
have been taught to believe that the 
shore birds, Limicolae, were confined to 
the seacoasts, are in error, as with few 
exceptions they are found in large flocks 
as far inland as our western prairies, 
while the Upland Plover is readily found 
high up on the hills of New England in 
the old, well-worn and stony pasture lots. 
In variety their names are legion and 
one species is known in different local- 
ities by a dozen different names. On 
Long Island we hear the name Dowitcher, 
in Massachusetts it is a Redbreast and 
again the bird is called in other places. 
Brown-back. The Marble Godwit of the 
east, in the west is a Marlin, and so on. 
Away up on the prairie meadows at 
the head waters of the St. Johns River 
the writer many years ago killed a large 
number of what the natives called “Stilt” 
a long, red-legged bird of some size and 
very fine eating; killing one some year* 
later on Long Island, my guide called 
it a Bastard Dowitcher. Again in the 
early 80 ’s we had some wonderful shoot- 
ing at a lake in the then territory of 
Utah, during which we killed in one day 
the greatest varieties of these snipe that 
I have ever seen in any one locality. 
We give below a list of the birds worth 
shooting, and as far as possible the 
names of each species used in the dis- 
trict where they are shot, over decoys 
or stools; the list includes the waders 
and plover, commonly called Bay Snipe. 
Bay Snipe 
Long - Billed Curlew (Numeniu» 
Longirostris) , sickle-bill; sabre-bill. 
Hudsonian Curlew (Numenins Hud- 
sonicus). Jack; short-billed curlew. 
Sometimes a flock of birds that intend to stool will drop down to leeward where they circle and then draw in over the decoys. 
