August, 1919 
FOREST AND STREAM 
411 
Esquimaux Curlew (Numenius Bore- 
alis), fute; doe bird; little curlew. 
Black - Bellied Plover {Squatarola 
Helvetica) , black-breast; bull-head; bee- 
tle-head; ox-eye; bottle-head; pilot. It 
is the fastest flying bird of all the bay 
snipe, and it cannot fly slow enough for 
the other species. 
Golden Plover {Charadrius fulvus 
var. virginicus) , golden-back, green- 
back; frost bird; whistling plover; bull- 
head. 
Great Marbled Godwit (Limosa 
fedoa), marlin; humility; brown-back; 
straight-billed curlew. 
Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa hudson- 
ica), ring-tailed marlin; white-tailed 
marlin; humility; Virginia woodcock. 
Semi-Palmated Snipe (Totanus semi- 
palmatus), willet; marbled willet. 
Tell-Tale Tattler or Snipe (To- 
tanus melanoleuca) , yelper; big yellow- 
legs; great yellow-shanks; Tell-tale tat- 
tler; stone snipe; large cucu; willet. 
Yellow- Shanks, Tattler or Snipe 
(Totanus flavipes) ; yellow-legs; little 
yellow-legs ; lesser tell-tale. Known 
everywhere as the yellow-legs. 
Red - Breasted Snipe (Macrorham- 
phus griseus) ; dowitch; dowitcher quail- 
snipe; brown-back; gray snipe; driver. 
Turnstone (Strepsilas interpres) ; 
calico-back; brant bird; chickling; chi- 
caric; sand runner; horse-foot snipe; 
beach bird. 
Red-Breasted Sandpiper (Tringa ca- 
nutus) ; robin snipe; knot; ash-colored 
sandpiper; gray-back; white robin snipe. 
Pectoral Sandpiper ( Tringa macu- 
lata) ; krieker; meadow snipe; fat bird; 
short-neck; jack snipe; marsh plover; 
grass plover; grass snipe; robin snipe; 
red back. 
Red-Backed Sandpiper ( Tringa alpina 
var. Americana); black-breast; black- 
breasted plover; winter snipe; red-back. 
Long-Legged Sandpiper (Micropalama 
himantopus) ; stilt; bastard dowitch; 
bastard yellow-leg; wood snipe; blind 
snipe; frost snipe; peep; drum stick. 
T he open season begins on or about 
August 1 to 15, and in most local- 
ities the bag limit is restricted to 
some fifteen to twenty-five birds per gun. 
This is wise, as these birds are well 
worth protecting, affording the sports- 
man as they do much sport, and call for 
considerable skill in the “whistling in” 
and decoying the various varieties as 
they come along. As much depends on 
the sportsman’s skill in whistling, and 
his knowledge of the varieties and species 
as does his accuracy and rapidity of 
aim. The sport, if it is good and the 
birds numerous, is exciting. The variety 
of species, the difference in call and 
flight, the uncertainty of bringing the 
game within range, and the selecting of 
the big birds of the flock lend a charm 
found in no other sport. 
In ordinary life there may be a ques- 
tion which is the best part of the day, 
but for shore birds, one must be dug in 
and have the stool out at daylight. Much 
depends on the character of the place 
where you go and the variety of birds 
you intend to shoot. As to what sort 
of a blind you must make on a sand 
bar or beach, a box sunk in the sand 
is a killing device. On a marsh a blind 
of cedar boughs or marsh grass or one 
can make a blind of muslin and sticks 
which can be stuck in the sand. What- 
ever one uses it must have a natural look 
and the gunner must be well hid, as 
Curlew, and Jack especially, are wary 
birds, and do not stool well unless every- 
thing “looks right.” Bars and shoals 
are the favorite haunts of the Black- 
breasted Plover, Willet and Dowitcher, 
while the meadow pond holes are the sure 
places to attract the Yellow Legs. 
The most favorable wind is one that 
blows steadily from the southeast. Birds 
coming from the north flying against it, 
lower their flight to skirt the bars and 
meadows and so are brought on to the 
stools better than when traveling with 
the wind and going at greater height. 
The stool : either the tin sort that 
hinge and nest one within the other and 
are put up on a single stick which holds 
them in place or the wooden sort, all of 
which are painted to resemble the differ- 
ent varieties. Some gunners use 20 to 
30 stool, but we prefer about 50 as the 
greater show is sure to attract, and then 
again this number allows the decoys to 
be well-strung out to windward. All 
stool should be set out to windward of 
the blind and in a crescent-shaped circle 
with the heads of the decoys facing 
into the wind. There are two reasons 
for arranging them in this way. First, 
all wildfowl light to the wind ; second, 
a flock of birds that intend to stool drop 
(continued on page 446) 
The correct layout of the stool in relation to the blind in the background 
