THE GAME OF THE SEAS ON. 
127 
of the Delaware and Chesapeake, and when all the gush¬ 
ing streams and vocal rivulets of the Northern and Mid¬ 
dle States, are bound in frozen silence. In the spring, 
according to the temperature of the season, from the mid¬ 
dle of April until the end of May, these migratory tribes 
begin to visit us of the northern shores, from the Capes 
of the Chesapeake, along all the river estuaries, sea bars, 
lagoons, and land-locked bays, as they are incorrectly 
termed, of Maryland and Delaware, the Jersey shores 
and the Long Island waters, so far as to Boston Bay, be¬ 
yond which the iron-bound and rugged nature of the coast 
deters them from adventuring, in the great flights with 
which they infest our more succulent alluvial shores and 
sea marshes. 
With the end of May, with the exception only of a few 
loitering stragglers, wounded, perhaps, or wing-worn, 
which linger after the departure of their brethren, they 
have all departed, steering their way, unseen, at immense 
altitudes, through the trackless air, across the mighty 
continent, across the vast lakes of the north, across the 
unreclaimed and almost unknown hunting-grounds of the 
red man, to those remote and nearly inaccessible morasses 
of the Arctic Regions whither the foot of man has rarely 
penetrated, and where the silence of ages is interrupted 
only by the roll of the ocean surf, the thunderous crash of 
some falling iceberg, and the continuous clangor of the 
myriads and millions of aquatic fowl, which pass the pe¬ 
riod of reproduction in those lone and gloomy, but to 
them secure and delightful asylums. Early in the autumn, 
or, to speak more correctly, in the latter days of summer, 
the Bay birds begin to return in hordes innumerable, re¬ 
cruited by the young of the season, which, not having as 
yet indued the full plumage of their respective tribes, are 
often mistaken by sportsmen and gunners, unacquainted 
with the distinctions of natural history, for new species. 
During the autumn, they are much more settled and less 
restless in their habits than during the spring visit, when 
they are impelled northward by the irresistible cestrum , 
which at that period stimulates all the migratory birds, 
even those reared in confinement and caged from the nest, 
to get under way and travel, whither their wondrous in¬ 
stinct orders them, in order to the reproduction of their 
kind in the localities most genial and secure. 
Throughout the months of August and September, they 
literally swarm on all our sand-bars, salt meadows, and 
wild sea marshes, feeding on the beaches and about 
the shallow pools left by the retiring tide, on the marine 
nnimalculac, worms, aquatic insects, small crabs, minute 
shell-fish, and fry ; after this time, commencing from the 
beginning of October, they move southward for winter 
quarters, although some species tarry later than others, 
and some loitering individuals of all the species linger 
behind, until they have assumed their winter garniture, 
when they are again liable to be mistaken for unknown 
varieties. 
Of these misnamed Bay Snipe, the following are the 
species of each family most prized by the sportsman and 
the epicure, all of which are eagerly pursued by the gun¬ 
ner, finding a ready sale at all times, although, me judice, 
their flesh is for the most part so oily, rank and sedgy, 
that they are rather nauseous than delicate or palatable. 
Much, however, depends on the state of their condition, 
the nature of the food on which they have fattened, and 
localities in which they feed; and to some persons the 
very flavor, of which I complain as rank, sedgy and fishy, 
appears to take the guise of an agreeable haul gout. 
The Red-breasted Sandpiper, Tringa Tcelandica. known 
on the Long Island waters, among the small islets of 
which it is very abundant, as the “ Robin Snipe,” by 
which name it is generally called, owing to the resem¬ 
blance of its lower plumage to that of the Red-breasted 
Thrush, or Robin, Turdus migratorius, of this continent. 
In autumn this bird assumes a dusky gray upper, and 
white under, plumage, and is then termed the “ White 
Robin Snipe.” In point of flesh it is one of the best of 
the Shore-birds. It is easily called down to the decoys 
by a well simulated whistle, and is consequently killed 
in great numbers. 
The Red-backed Sandpiper, Tringa Alpina, generally 
known as the “ Black-breasted Plover.” It is a restless, 
active and nimble bird, flies in dense bodies, whirling at 
a given signal; and at such times a single shot will fre¬ 
quently bring down many birds. In October it is usually 
very fat, and is considered excellent eating. In its 
autumnal plumage it is generally known to fowlers as 
the “ Winter Snipe.” 
The Pectoral Sandpiper, Tringa pectoralis. This is a 
much smaller, but really delicious species, particularly 
when killed on the upland meadows, which it frequents 
late in the spring and early in the summer, and on which 
I have killed it lying well to the dog, which will point it, 
while spring snipe shooting. On Long Island it is known 
as the “ Meadow Snipe,” or “ ShortNeck;” on the Jersey 
shores, about Egg Harbor, where it sometimes lingers 
until the early part of November, it is called the “ Fat 
Bird,” a title which it well merits; and in Pennsylvania, 
where it occurs frequently, is often termed the “ Jack 
Snipe.” It is these blunders in nomenclature, and multi¬ 
plication of local misnomers, which render all distinc¬ 
tions of sportsmanship so almost incomprehensible to the 
inhabitants of distant districts, and so perplexing to the 
youthful naturalist. During the autumn of 1849 I killed 
the Pectoral Sandpiper in great numbers, together with 
the American Golden Plover, Charadrius Mar?noratus, 
and the Black-bellied Plover, Charadrius Helveticus, on 
the marshes of the Aux Canards river, near Amherstberg, 
in Canada West, in the month of September, and a month 
later at Montgomery’s Pool, between lakes Simcoe and 
Huron. 
Of the Tattlers, three only are in repute as shore-birds, 
the best of the species, the Bartramian Tattler, Totanus 
Bartramius, better known as the “Upland Plover,” 
which is, in fact, with scarcely an exception, the most 
delicious of all our game-birds, being a purely upland and 
inland variety, and as such never, or but extremely sel¬ 
dom, shot on the coast. 
These three are, 
The Yellow-shanks Tattler, Totamts Flavipes, vulgo, 
“ the lesser yellow legs”—a bird, in my opinion, of very 
indifferent qualifications for the table, but easily decoyed, 
and readily answering the fowler’s whistle, and there¬ 
fore affording considerable sport. 
The Telltale Tattler, Totanus Vociferus,x ulgo, “ greater 
yellow legs,” a less numerous species than the former, 
and more suspicious. Its flesh, when it feeds on the 
spawn of the king-crab, or “ Horse-shoe,” is all but un¬ 
eatable, but later in the season it is in better condition, 
and is esteemed good eating. A few are said to breed in 
New Jersey. In the neighborhood of Philadelphia, where 
these birds are shot in great numbers on the mud-flats of 
the Delaware from skiffs, with carefully eoncealed gun¬ 
ners, stealthily paddled down upon them till within close 
shooting distances, these birds are termed “ Plovers,” 
and the pursuit of them plover shooting; of course wrong¬ 
fully. 
The last of this family is the Semipalmated Tattler, 
Totanus Semipalmatus, universally known as the “ Wil- 
let,” from its harsh and shrill cry, constantly repeated 
during the breeding season, the last note of which is 
thought to bear some resemblance to that sound. It is a 
