THE LIBRARY 
 G OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 

 
 ROBERT BARNWELL ROOSEVELT.
 
 AND THE 
 
 GAME WATER-BIRDS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ATLANTIC COAST AND THE LAKES OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 WITH 
 
 A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE SPORTING ALONG OUR SEA- 
 SHORES AND INLAND WATERS, AND REMARKS ON 
 BREECH-LOADERS AND HAMMERLESS GUNS. 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT BARNWELL ROOSEVELT, 
 
 AUTHOR OP " THE OAMB-FISH OF NOKTH AMERICA," " SUPERIOR FISHING,' 
 " FIVE ACRES TOO MUCH, 1 ' " ISMS," " POLYANTHUS," ETC., ETC. 
 
 IIiLUSTRATED. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, 
 
 751 BROADWAY. 
 
 1884.
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by the 
 
 ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 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 
 
 B 4960
 
 6 PREFACE. 
 
 laying up their craft during the best season of the 
 year for the enjoyment of sailing. They have 
 looked upon the South either as an uninteresting or 
 a dangerous country, a land merely of alligators or 
 of hurricanes. They will be as surprised as pleased 
 to learn that there is no better sailing ground, and 
 that the Southern waters in winter are as safe as 
 Northern waters in summer ; so much so that small 
 vessels and open boats have braved their terrors, 
 while their sporting advantages are not to be sur- 
 passed, if they are to be equalled, by any in the 
 world. 
 
 While not absolutely the pioneer in this explora- 
 tion, I happen to be nearly so, for no completed 
 work or continued record has been published which 
 covers the ground described, or conveys the infor- 
 mation contained in these pages. No more de- 
 lightful excursion can be conceived than that to 
 Florida during the winter, and no man can so 
 thoroughly enjoy it as the yachtsman. Thousands 
 of tourists have been going there for years, and 
 their number is augmenting every season. But 
 such persons merely rummage a country; they do 
 not possess it; they rush along sight-seeing and 
 curiosity-purchasing. Let the sportsman or the 
 invalid go to remain during the inclement winter 
 weather, and they will never regret the excursion. 
 
 THE AUTHOR.
 
 PART I. 
 
 FLORIDA.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. FLORIDA. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I. Florida. The Inland Passage 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. In Florida.... 59 
 
 CHAPTEP, III. Currituck Marshes. ... 116 
 
 PART II. THE GAME WATER-BIRDS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. Game of Ancient and Modern Days. Its Protection and 
 Importance. The proper Shooting Seasons. The Impolicy of 
 Using Batteries and Pivot-Guns 139 
 
 CHAPTER II. Guns and Gunnery. Breech-loaders compared with 
 Muzzle-loaders. All the Late Improvements in Breech-loaders. 
 Hammerless Guns 159 
 
 CHAPTER III. Bay-snipe Shooting. The Birds, their Habits, Pecu- 
 liarities, and places of .Resort. Stools and Whistles. Dress and 
 Implements appropriate to their pursuit. Their Names and 
 Mode of Capture 185 
 
 CHAPTER IV. The New Jersey Coast. Jersey Girls and their 
 pleasant ways. The peculiarities of Bay-snipe further eluci- 
 dated. Mosquitoes rampant. Good Shooting and " Fancy " 
 Sport. Shipwrecks and Ghosts 219 
 
 CHAPTER V. Bay-Bird*. - Particular Descriptions and Scientific 
 Characteristics. A Complete Account of each Variety 261 
 
 CHAPTER VI. Montauk Point. American Golden Plover or Frost- 
 Bird. A True Story of Three Thousand in a Flock. Lester's 
 Tavern. Good Eating, Fine Fishing, and Splendid Shooting. 
 The Nepeague Beach 301 
 
 CHAPTER VII. Eail and Rail-Shooting. Seasons, Localities, and 
 Incidents of Sport. Use of Breech-loader or Muzzle-loader. 
 Equipment 313 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. Wild-Fowl Shooting. General Directions, from 
 Boats, Blinds, or Batteries. Retrievers from Baltimore and 
 Newfoundland. Western Sport. Equipment 328 
 
 CHAPTER IX. Duck-Shooting on the Inland Lakes. The Club 
 House. -Practical Views of Practical Men. Moral Tales. A 
 Day's Fishing. The Closing Scenes 344 
 
 CHAPTER X. Suggestions to Sportsmen. A Definition of the Term. 
 Crack Shots. The Art of Shooting. The Art of not Shooting. 398 
 
 CHAPTER XL Directions for Building a Battery 415
 
 FLORIDA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 Florida so named by its discoverers from the 
 abundance, beauty and fragrance of its flowers. 
 The Land of Flowers what a beautiful sentiment. 
 Alas, it was never called anything of the sort. 
 Land happening to be first seen by the brave and 
 sturdy warrior but not imaginative linguist, Juan 
 Ponce de Leon, on Palm Sunday, his discovery was 
 called, with due and Catholic reverence, after the 
 day and not after any abundance of flowers, which 
 were probably not abundant on the sand spit where 
 he planted his intrusive feet. But no matter about 
 the origin of the term, the epithet is more than 
 justified, and the Peninsular State is not only glori- 
 ous in the endless beauty and variety of its flowers 
 till in good old English it might be termed one 
 huge nosegay but it is magnificent in the grandeur 
 and originality of its foliage. The jessamine climbs 
 above the deep swamps and lights up their darkness 
 with its yellow stars ; the magnolia towers in the 
 open upland a pyramid of vestal splendor ; the cab- 
 bage palmetto waves its huge fan-shaped leavos, 
 seven feet long, like great green hands, and the 
 moss hangs and sways and covers the bare limbs 
 with its ragged clothing. 
 
 To the rough, practical Northern mind, Florida
 
 10 ISE ttfLAKD PASSAGE. 
 
 is a land of dreams, a strange country full of sur- 
 prises, an intangible sort of a place, where at first 
 nothing is believed to be real and where finally every- 
 thing is considered to be possible. When the visitor 
 first arrives he cannot be convinced that the cows 
 feed under water ; before he leaves he is willing to 
 concede that alligators may live on chestnuts. The 
 animals and birds are as queer and unnatural as the 
 herbage, or as a climate which furnishes strawber- 
 ries, green' peas, shad, and roses at Christmas. 
 There is the Limpkin, the pursuit of which reminds 
 one of hunting the Snark. You are in continual 
 terror of catching the Boojum. It is a bird about 
 the size of a fish-hawk, but it roars like a lion and 
 screeches like a wild-cat, although it occasionally 
 whistles like a canary. It has a bill like that of 
 a curlew, adapted to probing in the sand, and yet it 
 sits on trees as though it were a woodpecker. It is 
 conversational and talks to you in a friendly way 
 during daytime, but at night it harrows up your 
 soul and makes your blood run cold with the fearful 
 noises it utters. If you hear any charming note or 
 awful sound, any pretty song or terrifying scream, 
 and ask a native Floridian, with pleased or trem- 
 bling tongue, "What is that?" he will calmly an- 
 swer, "That? that is a Limpkin." There are no 
 dangerous animals in Florida, only a few of Eve's 
 old enemies, and the sportsman is safer in the woods 
 at night under the moss-covered trees and on his 
 moss-constructed mattress than in his bed in the 
 family mansion on Fifth avenue. If he hears any
 
 THE IKLAXD PASSAGE. 11 
 
 unearthly noises, any soul-curdling shrieks, he can 
 turn to sleep again with the comfortable assurance 
 "that it is only a Limpkin." 
 
 To the sportsman it is needless to say that Florida, 
 when properly investigated, is a Paradise. Birds 
 and fish and game are only too plentiful, till it has 
 become a land of shameful slaughter. The brute 
 with a gun slays the less brutish animal for the mere 
 pleasure of murder when he cannot get, much less 
 use, what he kills, till on most of the pleasure 
 steamers shooting has been prohibited ; while the 
 idiot with the rod fills his boat with splendid fish 
 that rot in the hot sun and have to be thrown back, 
 putrefying, into the water from which his undisci- 
 plined passion hauled them. Sportsman should not 
 come to this land of promise and performance unless 
 they can control their instincts, for fear that they 
 should degenerate into mere killers. In truth, the 
 excess of abundance takes away the keener zest of 
 sport, which is largely due to the difficulties that 
 surround success. But for the ordinary inhabitant 
 of the rugged North, the quaintness of this border 
 land of the equator has an immense charm, while to 
 the invalid the pure, dry, warm air of both winter 
 and summer brings balm and health. The feeble 
 and sickly, especially the consumptive, should seek 
 Florida, for to them it offers the fabled springs of 
 perennial youth, which Ponce de Leon sought more 
 coarsely in vain. To the seeker after amusement, 
 to the man and woman of leisure, who wish to im- 
 prove as well as enjoy themselves, it is a very wonder-
 
 12 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 land of delight. It has a store of novelties which 
 are absolutely exhaustless, and tracts of interest- 
 ing country which, while perfectly accessible, have 
 never even been explored. 
 
 To enjoy Florida, however, one must seek it 
 aright. If the visitor follows the beaten track, he 
 will see the beaten things well beaten by many 
 vulgar footsteps. If he takes the steamers and 
 lives at the hotels, he will make quick trips and 
 have good accommodations. If he wants originality 
 he must pursue original methods. There are many 
 ways of reaching this floral El Dorado the ocean 
 steamer will carry you to Savannah, whence the 
 steamboat will transport you through byways and 
 inside cuts to Jacksonville, or the railroad will drag 
 and hurl you through dust and dirt by day and night 
 at headlong pace from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf. 
 But if you want to enjoy Florida, if you want to go 
 where no man has gone, and see what no eye has seen, 
 and handle what no hand has touched, then go there 
 in a yacht in a small yacht, just as small and of as 
 light draft of water as will accommodate comfortably 
 the party, that must be composed of individuals 
 sufficiently accustomed to one another to be sure 
 they can live together for three months without 
 quarrelling. Then, indeed, will you learn what Flor- 
 ida is, will possess its charms in close embrace and 
 have experiences and pleasures never to be forgotten 
 and not otherwise to be obtained. How is this to be 
 done, you may ask, and the purpose of this chapter 
 is to tell you exactly how.
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 13 
 
 A wealthy magnate may go in a big yacht to Florida, 
 give good dinners aboard and live in grandeur and 
 luxury, and he will see about as much not quite 
 as if he had left his yacht at home ; or the hasty- 
 plate-of-soup man may take a little steam launch 
 and stave her in on the first snag or oyster rock he 
 runs her against. But if the traveller and his 
 friends hire or buy a light-draught sailing vessel, 
 they will require more time, but they can go almost 
 everywhere and see absolutely everything. It was 
 just such, a vessel that I had built for use in the shoal 
 Great South Bay of Long Island a sharpie, to give 
 its nautical appellation of sixty feet length and 
 fifteen beam, with two state-rooms, a cabin having 
 four comfortable berths and over six feet head-room, 
 and a cuddy for the men and for cooking, although 
 we had an auxiliary cook stove in the cabin. This 
 vessel was intended to carry six passengers and two 
 men ; but boats of seventeen feet length and a cata- 
 maran have safely made the passage to the St. John's 
 River and are there now, so that a much smaller 
 craft would do. The advantage of the sharpie style 
 of construction was that the yacht only drew two 
 feet of water, and as I proposed to run entirely by. 
 chart, and not to use the services of a pilot, this was 
 an inestimable advantage. We could have braved 
 the battle and the breeze of the Atlantic and gone 
 outside all the way, but those who know most of the 
 ocean care least to have to do with it unless equipped 
 on the most thorough basis to encounter its buffets. 
 As an old sea captain said to me : "When I go to
 
 14 THE INLAKD PASSAGE. 
 
 sea I want to go in a steamer, and the biggest and 
 strongest steamer at that." Moreover, the inside 
 route is much the more interesting ; there is nothing 
 very novel about the sea but the danger of it, 
 whereas the bays, creeks, canals and rivers furnish 
 a fresh and continually changing panorama. There 
 is a frequent encounter with strange people, with 
 vessels of queer rigs and builds, an alternation of 
 scenery, the arrival at and departure from cities, the 
 chance to occasionally kill a bird or catch a mess of 
 fish something new happening every day. At sea 
 there is the ocean a great deal of ocean and 
 nothing else. 
 
 There exists a complete inside route from New 
 York to the St. John's Eiver, with the exception of 
 about a hundred miles south of Beaufort, North 
 Carolina, and on this stretch there are many acces- 
 sible inlets only a few miles apart, so that no vessel 
 need be caught out overnight or can fail to make a 
 safe harbor in case of necessity. The charts are 
 nearly complete and enable a person of ordinary in- 
 telligence, in a vessel drawing not over four feet of 
 water, to be entirely independent of pilots. The 
 lighter the draught, however, the better, and I 
 should not advise the use of any boat which requires 
 more than three feet to float in, two feet being 
 greatly preferable. 
 
 Do not start for the South before the first day of 
 November unless you wish to encounter a multi- 
 plicity, variety and intensity of fever that would be 
 the delight of the medical profession. Until frost
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 15 
 
 comes, there is waiting for you a choice between 
 fever and ague, intermittent, remittent, typhoid, 
 putrid, break-bone, yellow, and d'engue fevers, each 
 of which, when you have it, seems a little worse than 
 all the others until you have one of them also, an 
 event which is very likely to happen, when you dis- 
 cover that your first conclusions were erroneous. 
 Then before you start get good and ready. Look 
 over your fishing tackle ; be sure you have car- 
 tridges enough, and load them all with powder, but 
 not shot, so as to avoid unpleasant explosions. Use 
 your five hundred pounds of shot for ballast. 
 
 Lay in a tub of Northern butter and some white 
 potatoes, but do not imagine you are going to a 
 land of barbarism. You can get better hams, bet- 
 ter hard-tack, and as good and cheap canned goods 
 in Norfolk as you can in New York. Fresh eggs 
 are to be had everywhere, turkeys and chickens are 
 fair, and are sold in market cleaned, and if Southern 
 beef is tough it has a peculiar game flavor which is 
 very agreeable. Take in a good supply of coal; use 
 it for ballast if there is no other place to ctow it, 
 for you may get frozen in during a cold spell, and 
 will surely want plenty of extraneous warmth be- 
 fore you reach the "Sunny South." Then when 
 you are ready, sail up Raritan Bay, get a tow 
 through the Raritan and Delaware Bay Canal, and 
 even across to Delaware City if you please, and so 
 across to the Chesapeake Bay, where your journey 
 may be said really to commence, for thenceforth 
 you will have to rely on your sails and your brains,
 
 16 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 your motive power and your charts. There are 
 very thorough and complete charts of the Chesa- 
 peake, six in number, carrying you the entire way 
 to Norfolk and insuring you a good and safe harbor 
 whenever you need it. Do not forget that this is a 
 big sheet of water, and that you are on a pleasure 
 trip, and will be much more comfortable if at 
 anchor during the night. Besides, there is time 
 enough; you have all winter before you, as you can- 
 not get back until spring if you wanted to, now 
 that Jack Frost is about shutting the gates. From 
 Norfolk you can take a tow through the Albemarle 
 and Chesapeake Canal or not, as you please; much 
 better not if you happen to have a good northerly 
 wind, as there is only one lock, and you can make 
 the distance more pleasantly and safely under sail. 
 If your vessel draws less than three feet, you leave 
 the canal when you reach North Landing Eiver, of 
 which there is a chart, and you go down through 
 Currituck Sound by Van Slyck's Landing, and 
 thence through the Narrows. Beyond that for 
 some distance, as the chart says, you "can only 
 carry three feet of water, and that with difficulty." 
 If your vessel is of greater draught, you must take 
 the extension of the canal which carries you to 
 North River, from which point there is plenty of 
 water all the way. You can get a condensed chart 
 from the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal Com- 
 pany, which will give you a general idea of the 
 route from Norfolk to Smithville, and which will 
 be found very useful. But the Government charts
 
 THE IKLAHD PASSAGE. 17 
 
 of Pamlico Sound, which were completed in the 
 fall of 1883, should by all means be taken also, as 
 they are simply invaluable in case of storm and the 
 necessity of seeking harbor unexpectedly. Gov- 
 ernment chart No. 40 or 140 (both numbers are 
 used) will give you Currituck Sound from just 
 above Van Slyck's, and also North River from the 
 mouth of the canal, all that is necessary of Albe- 
 marle Sound, Croatan and Roanoke Sounds, either 
 of which you may take, and the magnetic courses 
 and distances to steer by as far south as Roauoke 
 Marshes Light. The post office at Van Slyck's 
 Landing is called Poplar Branch Post Office, Curri- 
 tuck County, N. C., and you can get your letters 
 and coarse supplies there, but no bread. The next 
 good harbor is Kitty Hawk, where there is also a 
 store and post office. If you go through Roanoke 
 Sound, remember that below Shallowbag Bay the 
 channel runs close along shore, closer than it seems 
 on the chart. You will have to feel your way care- 
 fully across below Broad Creek. There is plenty of 
 water if you find it, but it is not easy to find. 
 Prom the southerly end of Roanoke Island to Long 
 Shoal Light the course is south by west; from 
 Roanoke Marshes Light it is south, one half west. 
 You can go a mile inside of this light, but not fur- 
 ther, as the shoal beyond has not a foot of water 
 on it. Just north of this light is Stumpy Point 
 Bay, where you can make a good harbor, carrying 
 clear inside four feet of water. Prom Long Shoal 
 Light the course is south-west to a buoy on Bluff
 
 18 THE INLA-KTD PASSAGE. 
 
 Shoal; but as there is seven feet of water on the 
 shoal, accuracy is not necessary, and the same 
 course continued will take you near Royal Shoal, 
 which is easily made out, as there are two lights on 
 it. From this the course is south hy west to Har- 
 bor Island light, at the entrance of Core Sound. 
 This light is abandoned and is falling down, but 
 during the day the building is visible a long dis- 
 tance. If you can get a free wind, you can make 
 the run from Long Shoal to Harbor Island in a day, 
 provided you get under way early, which every sen- 
 sible yachtsman is careful to do. If not, you must 
 hug the main shore and look out, as there are many 
 shoals and no tide to help you off if you get 
 aground. The waters are salt and only moved by 
 the wind; and as Pamlico Sound is a miniature 
 ocean and gets up a big sea, it is well to be careful. 
 If you are caught near Eoyal Shoal, unless you are 
 acquainted with the channels, steer for the beach, 
 where you can get holding ground if not much of 
 a harbor. The charts of Pamlico Sound are Nbs. 
 42, 43, and 44. 
 
 There is a good chart of Core Sound, which is 
 shallow* but well staked out, the stakes having hands 
 on them to show on which side is the best water. 
 You can carry two feet of water close along the 
 shore from the buoy off the middle marshes, just 
 west of Barker's Island into Beaufort, but the main 
 channel is more to the southward and runs to the 
 point of Shackleford Banks. Then you go up Bulk- 
 head Channel, keep along the north shore of Town
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 19 
 
 Marsh a hundred rods, and then northeast and keep 
 the lead going to Beaufort, N. C. From here you 
 can either sail through Bogue Sound, of which 
 there is no chart, or go directly to sea. As the land 
 trends westward, it makes a lee even from a north- 
 easter and is as safe as any outside sailing can be. 
 
 There is a chart of Beaufort, N. C., which takes 
 you a few miles into Bogue Sound, but that is all. 
 South of Bogue Inlet, New Topsail Inlet is one of 
 the best, then Masonboro, and from either of these 
 a good wind will carry you past Cape Fear, the only 
 spot you have to dread and where you must manage 
 not to get caught. There is a good chart of Cape 
 Fear, but the rule of the local pilots is to follow the 
 eighteen-foot shoal down till you open Fort Caswell 
 by the main Light on Bald Head, and then steer 
 straight for the Fort, which will give you six feet of 
 water up to. the beach. But remember, there is 
 shoal water outside of you, and you must look out 
 for breakers. The next harbor is Little Eiver Inlet, 
 and then comes Winyah Bay, of which there is a 
 chart, and then Bull's Bay, of which also you can 
 get a chart. 
 
 From Bull's Bay it is inside work and a slftftl, but 
 not a difficult passage, to Charleston Harbor. Of 
 this there is no chart yet printed, and it ought to be 
 run, if possible, in a tide which will help at both 
 ends by running up from Bull's Bay and down into 
 Charleston Harbor. You come out at the cove near 
 Fort Moultrie where it is well to stop, as Charleston 
 Harbor is a large place in rough weather for small
 
 20 THE IHLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 boats. Here you begin on Coast Chart No. 54 (or 
 154). Go up the Ashley Eiver till St. Michael's 
 Church (which has the whitest spire) opens to the 
 north of the rice mills, and steer into Wappoo Cut, 
 which lies just south of some prominent buildings 
 on a point on the left shore. It will carry you with- 
 out trouble into the Stono River. Here the chart 
 fails you, you ascend the Stono, keeping a westerly 
 course past the first branch to the north which heads 
 toward a railroad in full view. When a large mill 
 on the north side is reached a lead branches to the 
 south. This must be avoided, and a mill with a 
 tower will soon be reached. This is on AVadmelaw 
 River, where the chart resumes its proper vocation. 
 Thence across the North Edisto, the Dawho River, 
 thence into the South Edisto, around Jehossee, but 
 not through Wall's Cut, which the natives assured 
 me was not open. Just at the south point of Jehossee 
 Island, Mosquito Creek enters the South Edisto ; 
 take the westerly lead where they branch just inside 
 the mouth, and then through Bull's Cut into the 
 Ashepoo ; down the Ashepoo and across St. Helena 
 Sound^nd either up the Coosaw and past Beaufort, 
 S. C. 1'he name of the town being pronounced 
 Bufort, which is about as short as any route, or 
 across the Sound to Harbor River and through it 
 and Story and Station Creeks into Port Royal 
 Sound. This is a big place again and uncomfort- 
 able at night in a storm with a heavy tide and sea. 
 You now take Coast Chart No. 55 (or 155). There 
 is a special chart of the route from St. Helena to
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 21 
 
 Port Royal, but it is not necessary. You steer nearly 
 west from the buoys off the mouth of Station Creek 
 to Bobee's Island at the mouth of Skull Creek. 
 There is an oyster rock in the middle of Skull Creek 
 where it makes its first bend to the southeast, and 
 this is the only danger before reaching Calibogue 
 Sound. In crossing Tybee roads, keep well out to 
 Red Buoy No. 2, whether you go directly south or 
 turn north to visit Savannah. If the latter, go by 
 the Light Beacon and to the westward of it, if the 
 former, take Lazaretto Creek into Tybee River and 
 Warsaw Sound. Keep well out by the buoys again 
 and head for Romerly Marsh Creek. 
 
 If you have gone to Savannah, continue your jour- 
 ney by the way of Wilmington River to the same 
 place, unless your boat is small enough to pole easily, 
 in which case you can go through Skiddaway Nar- 
 rows. Romerly Marsh and Adams Creeks will bring 
 you into Vernon River, when you steer for Hell 
 Gate, between Little Don Island and Raccoon Key. 
 If you have come through Skiddaway and down the 
 Buruside and Vernon Rivers, you can go inside of 
 Little Don Island. Here you use chart No. JL6 (or 
 156). Cross the Ogeechee River, and follownpthe 
 west bank to Florida Passage, through it and Bear 
 River to St. Catharine's Sound, across it and up 
 Newport River to Johnson's Creek ; thence down 
 the South Newport to Sapelo Sound. 
 
 There is good fishing in Barbour's River, just 
 above where the words "Barbour's Island" are on 
 the chart, Continue across Sapelo Sound and into
 
 22 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 Mud Eiver ; take the middle of this to New Tea- 
 kettle Creek, which will bring you into Doboy 
 Sound. Keep to the north of Doboy town, which is 
 a prominent object on the flat meadows. Here chart 
 No. 57 (or 157) begins, and you go from Duboy 
 straight through Little Mud Eiver and the same 
 course across Altamaha Sound ; then follow the 
 channel northwesterly into Buttermilk Sound ; 
 then either through Mackay's or Frederica Eivers, 
 as the wind best serves, into St. Simon's Sound. 
 Here the water is deeper and you can go directly 
 across from the black buoy No. 7 to the black buoy 
 at the mouth of Jekyls Creek. There are two 
 mouths to this creek. Take the easterly one and run 
 straight from the ranges on the point. Follow across 
 Jekyls and St. Andrew's Sounds up Cumberland 
 Eiver. At its head waters there are some islands ; 
 the channel is from a stake on shore to the west of 
 the eastermost island, then by ranges on the point, 
 which carry you past a little island with ranges which 
 give you the course south. Use the lead here. 
 Thence down Cumberland Sound by Dungeness, for- 
 merl^^he property of Gen. Nathaniel Green, and 
 whicnis much visited by tourist parties, across the 
 St. Mary's Eiver and up the Amelia to Fernandina. 
 Here chart No. 58 (or 158) begins. From the 
 Amelia Eiver you go to Kingley's Creek past two 
 drawbridges. The railroad bridge is out of order 
 and will not open square with the bulkhead. Be 
 careful here, as several accidents have happened and 
 the tide runs strong. Continue across Nassau Sound
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 23 
 
 to Sawpit Creek, at the mouth of which there is a 
 black buoy not laid down on the chart. Keep to 
 the southward of this buoy and run on through Gun- 
 nison's Out, which you will recognize by two pal- 
 metto trees that look like gate-posts at a distance. 
 Down Fort George River to the Sisters Creek and 
 thence to the St. John's Eiver where you will find a 
 dock a watermark not to be forgotton on your re- 
 turn trip. There are three charts of the St. John's, 
 which give it in full from its mouth to Lake Har- 
 ney ; the points to remember are to cross from Han- 
 nah Mills Creek to St. John's Bluff, and thence 
 back again to Clapboard Creek, whence you follow 
 up the north shore, keeping it as far as Dame Point 
 close aboard. Beyond this you can have no trouble, 
 as the St. John's has but one or two shoals where 
 there is less than six feet of water, and it is well 
 marked out with buoys and beacons. 
 
 If this description sounds a little tedious to the 
 reader, he will not think it so when he makes the 
 trip. If you want a pilot for any part of the route, 
 one can be had by applying to Captain Coste, of the 
 Lighthouse Service at Charleston ; but there .are few 
 persons who know what I have herein recorded, and 
 none of those will tell. We have had a long trip 
 for long as it has been on paper, it has been longer 
 in reality. Two weeks from New York to Beaufort, 
 N. C. ; ten days thence to Charleston, and ten more 
 to Jacksonville may be required, unless the traveller 
 is one of those lucky fellows who always have a free 
 wind through life. So he may want to rest, have
 
 24 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 his clothes washed, dress up in "a, boiled shirt" for 
 a change, and revive the fact that he is one of the 
 aristocracy, not an ordinary seaman. He will soon 
 tire of civilization, however, and long for the pleas- 
 ures of the chase. Then let him ascend any of the 
 tributaries of the St. John's from San Pablo at its 
 mouth to Juniper Creek, which empties into the 
 southerly end of Lake George. It was on the latter 
 stream that I nearly killed a Limpkin. 
 
 The man does not live who has actually caught or 
 shot a Limpkin. There are no Limpkins for sale 
 in the curiosity shops, where almost every other pro- 
 duction of Florida is to be had. It is admitted that 
 the Limpkin, like the recognized ghost, is proof 
 against powder and ball. But the writer never miss- 
 es that is, on paper and when he is recording his 
 shots. All writers do the same. So when the Limp- 
 kin sat on a limb and whistled and chuckled and 
 bobbed and bowed and finally flew away just before 
 we were near enough, and I fired as he disappeared 
 with horrible screams through the forest, one leg 
 dropped ! I had not killed him, but even a Limpkin 
 was not quite proof against my aim. Mr. Seth 
 Green, who was with me at the time and can vouch 
 for the truth of this statement, remarked in a mel- 
 ancholy tone of voice that he wished he had had his 
 rifle. As he had not succeeded in hitting anything 
 with his rifle thus far since we started, although he 
 had fired away half his cartridges, there is a chance 
 that he might have succeeded this time by way of 
 a change, and so I agreed with him heartily.
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 25 
 
 Alligators will not appear till warm weather that 
 is, till the middle of January by which time the 
 tourists will think he has got into the dog days, but 
 fish are abundant in all the fresh-water streams. In 
 that very Juniper Creek we caught so many big- 
 mouthed bass with fly and spoon that we not only 
 gave up fishing, but had to salt down dozens. And, 
 by tho way, these fish are much more of game fish 
 than they are at the North ; the smallest fight well, 
 take the fly freely and jump out of water as frequent- 
 ly and fiercely as the small-mouthed variety in our 
 waters. 
 
 Before leaving the instructive branch of my sub- 
 ject I wish to advise the yachtsman against giving 
 too much weight to the appearance of the Southern 
 sky. This will often cloud up toward evening in the 
 most threatening way. Such a heavenly monitor at 
 the North would warn us to make everything snug 
 and get the best bower over, but in the South these 
 appearances signify nothing. After a most fright- 
 ful-looking evening the morningwill break clear and 
 warm and quiet. There are few storms in Florida 
 during the winter, a "norther" occasionally and 
 possible a thunder storm, but no fierce northeasters 
 and no hurricanes. As to the comparative advantages 
 of working through the tortuous creeks with changing 
 tides, or running outside for short stretches, a pref- 
 erence might be given to the latter were it not that 
 the shoals off the mouths of the inlets extend so far 
 to sea. Many of the rivers have carried down so 
 much sediment that they have made shoals ten or 
 2
 
 .26 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 fifteen miles off shore. So that apart from questions 
 of safety and comfort, the distance by the inside 
 passage is the shortest. 
 
 In going South the yachtsman will pass large and ' 
 numerous flocks of bay snipe on all the marshes 
 south of Charleston. These marshes are muddy 
 islands and of a peculiar nature. On the surface 
 when dry they are firm enough for walking, but 
 their shores are unfathomable ooze beneath which 
 a man would sink at once out of sight and into 
 which an oar can be run for its entire length with- 
 out an effort. Curlew, willet, marlin, all varieties 
 down to the tiny ox-eye, and in immense flocks, 
 frequent these islands, where they seem to find food 
 without stint. To stool them you can set out your 
 decoys in the thin grass and make a stand near by 
 from reeds or bushes. They are quite wary, how- 
 ever, and seem to have learned the evil significance 
 of a gun. These marshy islands are honeycombed 
 with the burrows of the fiddler crab, and mussels 
 grow on their surface in soft mounds of earth. 
 They are covered by very high tides and are always 
 more or less damp. The bay snipe, however, do not 
 seem to winter here. They leave a small proportion 
 of their numbers, but the main body goes further 
 South, possibly beyond the equator. There are no 
 such myriads as the Northern flight would require, 
 and they grow fewer and fewer as the season advan- 
 ces, till in March they are almost scarce. Let the 
 sportsman take his toll from them while he can ; 
 stopping amidst the lonesomeness of these islands
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 27 
 
 where it is certain death to pass a summer, and few 
 of which are inhabited, and where he may sail tens 
 of miles without seeing a man, white or hlack. 
 Let him try the deep holes alongside of bluffs or 
 where two creeks meet for sheepshead, using for 
 bait the Southern prawn, that gigantic shrimp, 
 with its body six inches long and its feelers ten ; 
 and if he can catch no fish and misses the birds, 
 let him rejoice in knowing that there are millions 
 of both in Florida. 
 
 In describing my trip to Florida, I do not intend 
 to pursue any consecutive plan, or follow the posi- 
 tive order of events. It is not important to know 
 that we turned out to use the proper nautical 
 term at a certain hour in the morning of a cer- 
 tain day, and that we turned in again at night at 
 some other division of mean sidereal or solar time, 
 nor that we went a certain course or made so many 
 miles one day and so many more or less the next. 
 That is, the reader does not want to have too much 
 of this, although a little now and then may tend to 
 give a general idea of the trials, difficulties, and en- 
 joyments of a yachtman's life. But whether we 
 arrived at a place at five p. M. or five A. M. , important 
 as it may have been to us at the time, cannot, so far 
 as I can judge, interest tho reader as deeply as I 
 hope to interest him. For all such information I 
 will refer him to the ordinary books of travel. 
 That we did occasionally make fast time in our little 
 half scow, half yacht, that I built on the scheme of 
 putting a sail in a canal boat, will be proved by this
 
 28 THE IKLAXD PASSAGE. 
 
 single event ; when running across St. Simon's 
 sound in a fog, we passed a large steamer yacht, 
 called the " Gleam," one of the largest and finest 
 of Herreschoff's productions. We found her again 
 in Jacksonville when we reached there. She had 
 left Savannah on the second of January, we had left 
 Charleston on the tenth; she had arrived two days 
 ahead of us, so that by being able to keep inside 
 out of the storms and fogs of the Atlantic, we had 
 actually gone nearly double the distance in six days 
 less time. 
 
 The personnel of our party was made up of a 
 sporting medical man, Mr. Seth Green, the famous 
 fish-culturist, the ladies of the families and myself. 
 We went without any restriction as to time, which 
 is a most essential point in a yachting trip, and we 
 stopped where we pleased, and as long as we pleased, 
 we shot where there Avere birds to shoot, we fished 
 where there were fish to catch, and where there were 
 neither, we lay in the shade of the awning, if the 
 weather was warm, and smoked, or ate those globes 
 of concentrated lusciousness, the grape fruit when 
 we felt too energetic to loaf, and not energetic 
 enough to fish or shoot. Our trip was something of 
 an exploring expedition, and we had possible dangers 
 and inevitable inconveniences to encounter. Other 
 parties had gone to Florida in the same way, but 
 they had left no record of their adventures, no 
 guide-posts for those who should come after them. 
 So far as we were concerned, the country from 
 North Carolina to the Land of Flowers was a terra
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 29 
 
 incognita. We knew that there were birds, and 
 beasts, and fish, in that equatorial region, but where 
 to find them, how to reach them, and by what 
 methods to catch and kill them, were wholly un- 
 known to us. No one, after reading this record, 
 will have the same complaint to make. Several of 
 the Government charts were not completed, notably 
 those of Pamlico Sound, and the corrections of that 
 from Charleston south, so as to show the inside 
 route had not been made in the year 1882, which 
 was the one I had selected for the expedition. 
 
 "We had sent the "Heartsease" to Norfolk, and 
 were to meet her there, as by so doing we would 
 save time that could be better utilized than by 
 going over ground with which we were pretty well 
 familiar that of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 
 Virginia. At Norfolk, after we had purchased 
 what hard-bread, cake, pies, and other stores and 
 luxuries we needed, and had been through the fish 
 market, and selected an abundance of the largest 
 "spot," which is regarded as the most delicious 
 native fish, although it is nothing more than what 
 we call the Lafayette fish at the North, Ave engaged 
 a tow and started on our journey. We had to go 
 through the Albemarle and Chesapeake canal, and 
 made our first mistake in supposing that a tow was 
 a necessity for the operation. The puffy, dirty, 
 fussy, little steamboat ran us against everything 
 that she came near, and were it not that she was 
 unable to attain any considerable rate of speed, our 
 journey might have terminated before it fairly
 
 30 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 began. She jammed us against the dock when we 
 were starting, banged us into the first vessel we met 
 on our way, bumped us into the banks of the canal 
 when we had entered it, dashed us into the only 
 lock there was to get foul of, and then rammed us 
 against a dredging scow so fiercely, that there was 
 a momentary doubt whether we should not be 
 dredged out as an impediment to travel. 
 
 However, in spite of all these misadventures, we 
 made Currituck before night. We determined to 
 stay there some days for duck shooting, but I shall 
 not stop to describe the sport we had. It is enough, 
 that we loaded down our vessel with provisions, 
 which, as the weather came out cold, kept till they 
 were all consumed, and saved us from recourse to 
 those last resources of the way-farer, the insipid 
 canned meats, which, somehow, the manufacturers 
 manage to make taste so nearly alike, that one will 
 answer for the other, whether it is called mutton, 
 beef, or fowl. Then we sped away south, running 
 into Kittyhawk Bay for a harbor and a turkey, for 
 no one must imagine that it is necessary to starve 
 in the South, even amid the desolation of the deso- 
 late Eastern Shore. Not only does the proverbial 
 hospitality of the Southern people still exist as far 
 as the effect of a desolating war has left it a possi- 
 bility, but there are certain kinds of food to be got 
 there more readily than even at the North. It has 
 heretofore been a reproach to our Southern colored 
 brother, that the attractions of a hen-roost and lus- 
 ciousness of a fat turkey gobbler were too much for
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 31 
 
 his -virtue. But this state of facts and morals is 
 changing, the darkey is turning poultry fancier, he 
 is getting to raise chickens and sell eggs, he is fast 
 becoming a bloated fowl holder, and regular goose 
 and turkey wing clipper ; in his eyes the chicken is 
 assuming a different status, and hen-roost maraud- 
 ing is fast becoming a heinous crime, than which 
 there is none more unpardonable. He will soon be 
 the fowl monopolist, and when that day comes I 
 predict that the chicken will be regarded as a sacred 
 bird, and placed in the same catagory as the ibis of 
 Egypt. As it is, eggs can be obtained almost any- 
 where, and wherever there is a darkey's hut, there 
 the voice of the cackling hen ascends in welcome 
 and suggestive music to high heaven, resonant of 
 omelettes plain, omelettes aux fines Jierbes, with 
 ham or with onion, of scrambled eggs, boiled, 
 roasted eggs, of pan cakes and sweet cakes, of cus- 
 tards, egg-nog, and all the thousands delicacies 
 towards which the hen contributes with enthusiastic 
 zeal, and greatly to the happiness of man. 
 
 The course of the contraband can be exemplified 
 by that of the milk farmer, if the story which I 
 once heard from an eminent retired politician is 
 true, as I think it may be. Many of the farmers 
 living in the neighborhood of Utica were in the 
 habit of supplying that city with milk from the 
 herds of cows that the magnificent meadows of the 
 vicinity easily supported. Those careful and con- 
 scientious gentlemen, aware of the heating proper- 
 ties of milk in its strong and crude state, felt it was
 
 32 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 but a duty they owed their fellow beings, and espe- 
 cially their customers, to make sure that they did 
 not incur the evils which were certain to arise from 
 the unguarded use of so deleterious a beverage. 
 They mixed the dangerous fluid with a sufficient 
 proportion of water to kill the germs of disease, 
 and lest their motives should be misunderstood, 
 they did not mention their thoughtfulness to the 
 consumers. Hence it was that Utica enjoyed unex- 
 ampled health, and it would no doubt have contin- 
 ued in tlje same enjoyment except for a change in 
 the methods of milk culture. Milk, instead of 
 being converted into butter or sold in its natural 
 state, came in time to be manufactured into cheese. 
 Great cheese dairies were established, to which the 
 farmers sent their milk, in place of disposing of it 
 by local trade. Now it was essential that the milk 
 so delivered should be absolutely pure, for the ex- 
 cellence of the product not only depended on this, 
 but also in order that the amount might be fairly 
 credited to each of the persons furnishing a share of 
 the supply. Then the bucolic view that had hereto- 
 fore obtained in that neighborhood was modified, 
 and of all the sins in the decalogue, none was quite 
 so henious as the adulteration of milk. I do not 
 vouch for this story, although a long course of lac- 
 tic experience in the city of New York gives it an 
 air of possibility. Certain it is that since the in- 
 troduction of cheese factories, the health of Utica 
 has declined, but then no one can positively say that 
 this change is due entirely to the purity of the milk.
 
 THE ItfLAXD PASSAGE. 33 
 
 On our way to Kitty Hawk, we had passed a 
 number of nets which the local fishermen were haul- 
 ing, and Mr. Green, who had a mania for inter- 
 viewing every one he met, had promptly boarded 
 the first of the boats, obtained all the statistics, and 
 even helped make one haul. He found out that 
 they caught what they called chub, the big-mouthed 
 bass (Grystes salmoides), as large as eight pounds; 
 white perch; the robin, which is our sunfish; red 
 fin, our yellow perch; bull sucker, our black sucker; 
 sucker-mullet, our mullet, which were taken in the 
 creeks and up in the swamps, and nanny shad, which 
 seemed to be our gizzard shad, known in Baltimore 
 as bream. As they did not have all these varieties 
 in the boat at the time, we were not quite sure as to 
 the last. The fishermen knew nothing of the 
 spawning season, but we found roe three inches 
 long in a seven-pound big-mouthed black bass. 
 
 There is a club house at Kitty Hawk Bay, belong- 
 ing to the Kitty Hawk Ducking Club, but it was 
 deserted when we were there by the club, and given 
 over to the possession of Captain Cain, who runs 
 the principal fishery in that part of the country. 
 He told us that the bass spawned in March, and 
 that the same kinds of fish were caught near there 
 which I have described. While we were ashore en- 
 joying his hospitality, a sudden squall came up and 
 blew most of the water out of the bay, so that the 
 small boat in which we had come ashore was left a 
 hundred feet from the edge of the water. 
 
 The next day, which was December 8th, we
 
 34: THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 passed Nag's-head Hotel, and came to anchor in a 
 perfect little harbor in the lower part of Roanoke 
 Island, where Captain Cain once had a terrapin 
 farm. It was a charming, though deserted, spot, a 
 bay just large enough for the yacht to swing in, and 
 completely land-locked, the buildings tumbling to 
 pieces, the terrapin ponds still there, but with not 
 only their occupants departed, but the very fences 
 falling down or being used for firewood. The specu- 
 lation had failed, because even there, in the very 
 home and abiding place of the terrapin, he had 
 grown so scarce that a sufficient business could not 
 be done to make it profitable. Terrapins are taken, 
 as Mr. Green soon found out, in bag or trawl nets, 
 that are drawn along the bottom, as we at the North 
 use a dredge for oysters. On the front of the net, 
 which hangs loosely behind, is an iron bar, of suf- 
 ficient weight to lie close to the bottom as it is being 
 dragged; this slips under the terrapins, which are 
 thus carried into the net. We readily understood 
 that they were not plenty, when we were informed 
 that "count" terrapins, that is, those over six 
 inches in length, bring on the ground one dollar 
 apiece. 
 
 The weather had become very cold for yachting. 
 The thermometer fell to eighteen degrees daring 
 the night, and we found that all the resources 
 of our vessel were hardly equal to keeping us 
 warm in our berths. Early next morning we 
 obtained our first oysters. We had brought oyster 
 tongs with us; in fact, if there was any kind
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 35 
 
 of rod, reel, line, net, hook, sinker, swivel, or 
 fishing device whatever that we had not brought 
 I should like to be informed of it. When Mr. 
 Green joined the yacht and produced from the bow- 
 els of an immense trunk, a luxury that in itself I 
 never knew him to allow himself before, and which 
 was in our way the entire journey till we got rid of 
 it at Jacksonville, much to its owner's chagrin first 
 two breech-loaders, then a rifle and a hundred weight 
 of ammunition, then an immense bundle of sporting 
 rods, next i box of lines and reels, and finally an over- 
 grown scrapbook filled with all manner of gangs of 
 hooks, the doctor and myself felt that the sporting 
 interest would not suffer. As I had sent him word 
 that he need bring neither guns, fishing tackle, nor 
 ammunition, it was evident that he intended we 
 should not fall short, But now when our men be- 
 gan tonging up the delicious bivalves which we had 
 not seen for so many days, on account of the fresh- 
 ness of the water, we felt thankful for one of our 
 precautions. Here let me warn the reader that he be 
 sure to bring oyster tongs with him. He will find 
 it difficult to get them in the South at all, and if he can 
 they will be much heavier and more awkward than 
 those in use with us. Just south of the opening in- 
 to our night's harbor, and in the main channel, we 
 found a man at work oystering and we joined him 
 promptly, confident that where there was enough for 
 one there was in this matter enough for two. Either 
 the oysters off the lower end of Koanoke Island are 
 very delicious, or else our appetites were sharp from
 
 36 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 abstinence. For as fast as our man Charley brought 
 them to the surface and deposited them on the deck, 
 we opened them with a skill founded on some expe- 
 rience and more desire, and devoured them with 
 hearty gusto. 
 
 We loaded up with oysters and then started once 
 more on our course, but the wind fell off and we 
 anchored in Stumpy Point Bay, some thirty miles to 
 the southward and on the main shore. At our last 
 stopping plac3 a sick man had come aboard for ad- 
 vice, and here we not only found two others, but were 
 also informed that their mother was at the point of 
 death. There seemed to be a sublime faith in these 
 people that all Northerners must know something of 
 medicine, as none of them had a suspicion of our 
 having a physician in the party. Indeed they came 
 for " a drawing of tea" as they called it, rather than 
 for any special medicine, for they appeared to consider 
 sickness the natural condition of man, as among 
 those terribly unhealthy swamps and low lands it 
 probably is. After that almost everywhere we went 
 we were asked for "a drawing of tea" for some 
 sick person. 
 
 Their ailments were evidently only too well found- 
 ed, and as the people were clearly not a complaining 
 set, we were sorry that we had not brought more of 
 the coveted article with us. The whites of this coast 
 looked weazened, thin, yellow, and cadaverous, as if 
 they had a perpetual conflict with fever in which 
 they invariably got the worst of it. They had the 
 shadow of death in ttosir faces. In their motions
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 37 
 
 they exhibited a langour which strangers are apt to 
 attribute to laziness, but which I believe due to dis- 
 ease. Let a man once take the southern fever, and 
 it will be many months if not years before he feels 
 like himself again. Our latest patients were fisher- 
 men, and to Mr. Green's insatiable inquiries they ex- 
 plained that they caught in their seasons shad ; 
 rock, our striped bass; trout, our weakfish; hickory 
 shad, white perch, mullet, spot, round-nosed shad 
 and flat backs, though what these latter were was 
 more than we could guess. They said that the fishing 
 had fallen off greatly of late years, but that the prices 
 had increased and that now they were paid seventy 
 five cents for a roe shad, and thirty for bucks. 
 
 Next day was clear and cold, with a strong and favor- 
 able wind from the north-west, so much so that even 
 the imperturbable doctor was impatient to be off, but 
 Mr. Green had an idea, and when he has anything of 
 that sort he is the last man to part with it without 
 full fruition. To our proposal to get under weigh 
 early ho replied. 
 
 " Beyond this you tell me that we have a groat 
 stretch of open water ?" 
 
 " Yes," I answered, "the entire Pamlico Sound, 
 which must be a hundred and fifty miles long and 
 fifty broad, so the more advantage we take of this 
 favorable wind the better." 
 
 " Well, you expect to find ducks, don't you, on 
 the route ?" he inquired by way of response. 
 
 "I hardly know what we shall find," I answered, 
 "but I should like to find ducks, and have heard 
 
 ^65125
 
 38 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 that there are innumerable brant on the ocean 
 side." 
 
 "That is just as I supposed/' was Mr. Green's 
 reply, as he took up the axe that lay on the deck, 
 "and as you have no battery, how do you expect 
 to kill them ?" 
 
 The doctor and I had nothing to reply, and Mr. 
 Green, carrying the axe, called one of the men and 
 rowed away to the shore in triumph. During his 
 absence the doctor, who is a cordon bleu, prepared 
 the turkey that we had purchased at Kitty Hawk 
 for cooking, by stuffing it with the oysters that 
 we had tonged at Roanoke Island. By the time 
 this culinary feat was accomplished, our master of 
 fish culture had returned. He had cut a dozen 
 stakes about eight feet long, which were to be used 
 to improvise a blind, by thrusting them into the 
 bottom and tying strings around from one to the 
 other, and hanging reeds or grass tied in bunches 
 over the strings. 
 
 These precautionary measures being taken, we got 
 under-way. The wind had increased to almost a 
 gale, and our brave little vessel fairly leaped before 
 it towards the South like a race horse. Quite a sea 
 had made in the broad expanse of Pamlico Sound, 
 which can be stormy enough when in the humor, 
 and the waves rolled after us in vain and vindictive 
 fury. There were two large steamers going South, 
 and we held them for some time, and had hopes of 
 keeping up with them, but they slowly drew ahead, 
 and left us alone in the waste of tumultuous waves.
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 41 
 
 We made one of our best runs that day. The 
 weather was too perfect for us to stop for fish or 
 birds, although we saw clouds of the latter rising 
 up in the distance from the disturbed surface of the 
 Sound. We ought to have gone to Hatteras, or 
 Roanoke Inlet, where we had been assured by the 
 residents the brant shooting was magnificent, but 
 we could not lose such unusually favorable Aveather, 
 and sped on and on through the seething waves, 
 hour after hour, till when the sun was still quite 
 well above the horizon, we ran through the narrow 
 channel into the peaceful waters of Core Sound. 
 
 What a change came over the spirit of our sail- 
 ing, from the boisterous violence and rough seas 
 that beat our vessel's sides turbulently, or followed 
 us fiercely to the scarcely ruffled bosom of the small 
 and shallow bay, only a few miles wide, and shut in 
 on all sides by the land. We managed to reach 
 Lewis's Creek before sunset, where we saw a number 
 of working boats going to find security for the 
 night. When we had anchored among them, the 
 fishermen told us that there were the usual kinds 
 of salt water fish, although there was no tide in 
 Core Sound other than that made by the wind. 
 They said there was good oystering off the point of 
 Lewis's Creek, and next day proved their words. Ib 
 was a wild spot. The only mark of human habita- 
 tion being an old wind-mill, which stood on the 
 point, The weird effect was further heightened 
 during the darkness by the lighting of fires by the 
 fishermen, who had no sleeping accommodations
 
 42 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 on their boats, and who went ashore for the 
 purpose. 
 
 "Would you like to kill an English snipe?" 
 called out Seth Green to me next morning from the 
 shore, whither he had already gone with our boat- 
 man, Charley. I had been busy, or perhaps, if the 
 truth must be confessed, sleepy, and had just come 
 on deck. 
 
 " Of course," was my instantaneous reply, the idea 
 of any one not wanting to kill an English snipe being 
 too ridiculous to entertain for a moment. 
 
 " Then get your gun, and Charley will come for 
 you in the boat." 
 
 In five minutes the doctor and I were both ashore, 
 and in less than as many more we had put up and 
 bagged our first bird. It seemed that Charley, who, 
 as I have already stated, was an old gunner, had 
 heard the bird as he flew over, and had seen him 
 alight. He did not know that there were more than 
 one, but we found quite a flight of them. The spot 
 was not large, but it was evidently a favorite one. 
 We had no dogs and went floundering about through 
 the mud, but at every few steps a bird was flushed, 
 and his appearance commemorated by the report of 
 a gun or the cheery cry of, " mark !" It was a deli- 
 cious episode in our trip, for no sport is more appre- 
 ciated by the true sportsman than the killing of our 
 gamest of all game birds, the stylish English snipe. 
 In two hours we had bagged thirty-one. In fact 
 we had killed them all, for if we did not get them at 
 the first rise, it was easy to follow them up, as they
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 43 
 
 seemed so fond of the place that they would not 
 leave it. After we had gone on board with our 
 trophies, and while we were getting under way, we 
 saw new whisps arriving to take the place of those 
 which we had killed, as if they were informed of the 
 event, and were anxious to profit by the disasters of 
 their friends, even at the peril of their own lives. 
 
 Core Sound was full of wild fowl, of which many 
 were red-heads and canvas-backs, and had we had 
 a battery, we could have killed unlimited numbers. 
 We had to do as well as we could with Mr. Green's 
 substitute, which, although better than nothing, was 
 not at all equal to the proper machine. Neither had 
 we time to wait. Florida was a long way off, and 
 well we knew that, once there, we should have all 
 the game w.e wanted ; so as we struck another favor- 
 able wind, we did not stop at Harker's Island, where 
 the best shooting is to be had, but ran on to Beau- 
 fort. We had actually dawdled not more than three 
 or four unnecessary days in Core Sound, before going 
 into the narrow, shallow and difficult harbor of what 
 was once the watering place as Avell as business mart 
 of that section of the Southern country. The port 
 dues are heavy, and I would advise the yachtsman 
 to avoid it altogether and go, if he needs must go 
 into any port, directly to Morehead City, which is 
 rapidly appropriating the trade and fashion of its 
 older rival. 
 
 There is a large business in oysters at Beaufort, 
 and the civilization of moss-bunker factories has 
 been introduced from the North. Fish were scarce,
 
 44 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 but we purchased some very fair beef at very mod- 
 erate prices, eighteen pounds of porterhouse being 
 sold to us for eight cents a pound. The town is a 
 pretty one, and the next day being Sunday, we went 
 to the colored Methodist Church, a thing that no 
 visitor must fail to do, and heard some very charm- 
 ing singing. This was our first experience of the 
 quaint, wild, and slightly barbaric harmony of the 
 voices of the negroes, of which we were to hear a 
 great deal before our return to the North. 
 
 Beaufort was the first thoroughly Southern town, 
 with its fig trees in the open air, the Yupawn, or 
 native Tea tree, the red-berried evergreen bushes, 
 whose name we could not ascertain, and its genial 
 air of Southern indolent happiness, which we had 
 visited. We were sorry to leave it, and had Florida 
 been only placed where it ought to have been, five 
 hundred miles nearer New York, we should have 
 stayed days if not weeks longer. But the time was 
 flitting by, and still we were a thousand miles from 
 our destination. So without more ado we put to sea. 
 From Beaufort to Cape Fear there is such a bend 
 in the coast that it is laid down on the charts as a 
 bay. Being shielded from the terrible northeasters 
 of the Atlantic, which reach no farther than Cape 
 Hatteras, it is as safe for a small vessel as any part 
 of the boisterous ocean ever can be. But I was glad 
 when Heartsease got through the voyage. With 
 care there is no danger, and the trip is not half as 
 perilous a one as we are accustomed to take at the 
 North, where we are at home, without a thought of
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 45 
 
 fear. There are numerous and very practicable in- 
 lets, and the yachtsman should make sure of getting 
 into one of them at night. The same may be said 
 of the stretch beyond Cape Fear. Treat the mighty 
 ocean with the respect it deserves, and it will never 
 illtreat you. On the charts the northern or old inlet 
 of Cape Fear is laid down as closed by a bulkhead. 
 This it is no doubt intended to be, to the discomfort 
 of small sailing craft, but at the timo I speak of it 
 was open. Possibly it was only opened temporarily 
 by a storm, and may be shut again now. 
 
 There were some birds in Bull's Bay, but not 
 enough to induce us to pause, as we were anxious to 
 get the yacht to Charleston as quickly as we could. 
 So we made the most of the wind and the tide, and 
 anchored over against Fort Moultrie early in Jan- 
 uary. Does any of my readers care to hear how we 
 enjoyed Christmas Day ! If so, I will in that con- 
 nection, and with the happy sacredness of that day 
 in my mind, make a confession. In one of the open- 
 ing paragraphs of this history I mentioned the fact 
 that we had a stove, a cooking as well as heating 
 stove, in the main saloon. I did not, however, 
 acknowledge what I am now about to make public, 
 that every one of the party, from the state-rooms to 
 the forecastle, was a cook, and in the opinion of him 
 or herself a most sweet and dainty chef de cuisine. 
 Aware of this divine afflatus, they were none of them 
 entirely content unless they were exhibiting their 
 skill, so both stoves were run to their utmost 
 capacity, and as the appetites of the party were good
 
 46 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 and daily growing better, a vast consumption of pro- 
 visions was continually taking place. While each 
 was at heart assured that their own productions 
 were a little the best, and tempted the others to 
 admission of the fact by the offering of special deli- 
 cacies where delicacies were not needed, there was 
 no one mean enough to . repudiate the work of a 
 brother or sister artist, even if it were ruined in the 
 preparation or burned to tastleseness in the cooking. 
 Christmas was by common consent set apart as the 
 day on which each and every member of our briny 
 household should cook whatever they found best in 
 their own eyes. The store-room was thrown open 
 and free liberty of selection was given to all. 
 
 To the male kitchen genius the most difficult 
 article to prepare, is the most necessary one, bread. 
 Within the realms of civilization the staff of life 
 seems, as it were, to grow of itself. It can be found 
 on every corner ; stares in fat complacency at you 
 from the shop windows on every block ; there is 
 never any dearth of bread so long as there is a penny 
 to purchase it ; delicate-minded tramps scorn it, and 
 in every well-regulated household enough of it is 
 thrown into the waste pail to feed another house- 
 hold of equal numbers. But at sea this is different, 
 and when man, though he pride himself on the bril- 
 liant hue of his blue ribbon, is required to make 
 good the deficiency, he is apt to come to grief. So 
 the queen of our marine family announced that she 
 would make a big batch of bread for that special 
 festivity.
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 47 
 
 While no one could or would dare to dispute the 
 ability of that lady to do well whatever she under- 
 took, yet in the matter of bread making her methods 
 were peculiar. In the first place she had to have 
 the cabin to herself, and as bread has to be set over 
 night, we were all turned out on Christmas eve and 
 left to shiver on the deck. Then she has a way of 
 strewing flour about in the operation till she covers 
 the tables, the chairs, the floor, even the sides of the 
 saloon and sometimes the cabin roof with dough or 
 its ingredients. It was not five minutes after we 
 were allowed to return, the " rising" having been 
 made an accomplished fact and set away in a corner, 
 before our hands, our clothes, our faces, and our very 
 hair were covered with incipient bread. But worse 
 even than that was the injunction that was solemnly 
 laid on us under no circumstances to presume to touch 
 the "rising" which had been deposited directly over 
 the stove, and without moving which it would be im- 
 possible to get breakfast. As our lady was a late 
 riser herself, and would never stir till she was assured 
 through the state-room door that her breakfast was 
 ready and on the table, the question of having that 
 important meal was as complicated as getting the 
 fox, the goose, and the corn over the stream. 
 
 One of the associate lady patronesses devoted her- 
 self to making biscuits, as the bread would not be 
 cooked till dinner time. I evolved pancakes, the 
 doctor compounded a hash, and altogether we began 
 Christmas with such a breakfast as is rarely met with 
 on the desert surface of the inland water communi-
 
 48 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 cation between the North and the South. Seth 
 Green had reserved himself till, as he politely re- 
 marked, " the rest of you should be through your 
 mussing," then he began. But his efforts did not 
 last long unmolested, he had split open a duck, a fat 
 one had been especially selected for so unusual an 
 occasion. This he had laid between the wires of an 
 oyster broiler, then he opened the entire top of the 
 stove and proceeded to broil it upon the hot coals. 
 It is unnecessary to remark that such a proceeding 
 evolved an amount of smoke that filled the cabin full 
 in a moment. The rest of the party were busy at 
 their breakfeast enjoying the delicacies which had 
 already been prepared, when they were fairly suffo- 
 cated by this torrent of smoke and began to realize 
 as never before the sad fate of the inhabitants of 
 Pompeii. 
 
 " Seth" I exclaimed, " can't you keep part of the 
 stove covered so as to let some of the smoke go up 
 the chimney ?" 
 
 "Mr. Green, Mr. Green," came from the ladies 
 all at once, "please don't smother us." 
 
 " Smoke and the gas of cooking" gasped the doc- 
 tor, his philosophy almost dissipated in it " are in- 
 jurious at meal times, there is such a thing as being 
 asphyxiated." 
 
 "For heaven's sake," I implored, for by this 
 time the condition of the atmosphere was unbear- 
 able, " do throw that duck out of the companion 
 way." 
 
 "Oh Mr. Green do stop cooking that horrid
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 49 
 
 duck," exclaimed our princess, "if you do not I shall 
 have to leave the table." 
 
 That last threat was too much, Seth could not 
 bear to be ranked as an obstructive when he was ac- 
 complishing a culinary triumph which was to delight 
 our gustatory nerves and establish forever his repu- 
 tation as a cookist. He turned a reproachful face 
 towards the party without showing the slightest sign 
 of discontinuing his fell work, and with an air of 
 bitter rebuke retorted upon us. 
 
 " This is the first time that I have done any cook- 
 ing. All the rest of you have cooked as much as 
 you liked. I have stood to one side and got out of 
 the way and never had a chance, and now the very 
 instant I cook a little duck you all make a fuss. I 
 don't think it's fair. I did want a piece of duck for 
 my breakfast and I picked out the smallest one for 
 fear somebody would think I was greedy, and now 
 you ask me to throw it overboard ; it is almost done, 
 and if you will only have patience for a few moments 
 I will be through." 
 
 His manner was more impressive than even his 
 words, and no one had the heart to reply. We tearfully 
 held our napkins to our noses to keep out the smoke 
 and smell as well as we could, we coughed and choked, 
 but we allowed him to finish. Unfortunately Seth 
 believes in cooking a duck to a chip, and hence he 
 was occupied longer than he had promised, but 
 he was through at last, and then not only was he 
 happy in the vindication of his culinary knowledge, 
 but he had the satisfaction of bringing our ingrati-
 
 50 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 tu.de home to us, by pressing on us choice morsels, 
 which he offered in a delicate and forgiving way 
 upon his own fork, and which we were fain to accept 
 and swallow in the same fashion under pain of again 
 offending him. 
 
 Nevertheless the duck was good, the biscuits were 
 good, the pancakes were excellent, the hash was 
 superb, every article of diet all day long, from the 
 gorgeous breakfast to the gorging at supper, when 
 appetite had been more than sated, were unsurpass- 
 able and we had a Christmas long to be remembered. 
 
 We remained in Charleston for two weeks. If the 
 reader asks what we were doing all that time, let 
 him go to the old time Queen City of the South, now 
 apparently being displaced by her enterprising rival, 
 Savannah ; let him roam about her quaint streets and 
 mingle with her hospitable people, and he will find 
 out. There is much of physical and human interest 
 in and around Charleston, from the live oaks on her 
 Battery or White Point Park, and the moss covered 
 trees of her famous Magnolia cemetery, to the oys- 
 ters growing in thousands around her sea-wall, and 
 which would furnish unlimited sustenance to her 
 citizens were they not oyster surfeited. We stood 
 and gawked at the tropical plants in full foliage, and 
 at the orange trees in full bearing, in the house door 
 gardens till the residents, unacquainted though they 
 were personally with us, took pity and gave us the 
 names of the plants and told us that the oranges 
 were sour, none of the sweet varieties being able to 
 grow so far north.- We loafed around the market
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 51 
 
 which was an ever renewing delight to Mr. Green, 
 who, before we left, had established a personal bond 
 of admiration and friendship from every darkey 
 fisherman who brought his cargo there. We fed the 
 turkey buzzards, we ascertained that the fish about 
 Charleston were, in their various seasons, mostly 
 sheepshead, bass, the drum of North Carolina and 
 channel bass of Florida, Corvina Ocellata; sea-bass, 
 here called black fish, which are mostly caught by 
 the negroes outside the bar in their open boats; sea 
 trout, our weak fish; mullet, which they told us were 
 becoming scarce; blue fish which are never caught in 
 winter, and which also were diminishing in numbers; 
 black drum ; big porgees of four or five pounds; both 
 the salt and fresh water varieties of cat fish, which 
 were very abundant; whiting, our king fish, and their 
 finest table delicacy; angel fish, crevalle; fresh water 
 trout, our black bass, and shad, which begin their 
 run in January. 
 
 All around Charleston the negroes seem to be in 
 possession of the country. They are pleasant, polite, 
 and lazy, arc content to do the old slave tasks even 
 when working for themselves, and will never consent 
 to do more when working for others at any price of 
 remuneration, as though if they worked too hard the 
 work would be exhausted and there would soon be 
 nothing more to do. They are paid fifty cents a 
 cord, for instance, to cut wood, and they stop 
 when they have cut one cord, although they are 
 through at one o'clock. They look more healthy 
 and happy than the whites throughout the entire
 
 52 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 South, which is a probably a climacteric result, but 
 pregnant of many possibilities for the future. It is 
 they who supply Charleston market, it is they who 
 do the fishing and the work, and more important 
 still, it is they who make all the Sea-island cotton 
 and bring it to the city in their boats from the shores 
 where inevitable death lurks for the superior race. 
 That most valuable of Southern products, the old 
 time king of the world, arrives in driblets, here a 
 pound and there a pound. It is badly baled, but it 
 comes and in good order too. To day the negro 
 controls the whilom king, which is indeed putting 
 the bottom rail on top. 
 
 The Charleston "Eagles," as he called the buz- 
 zards, were a source of infinite complacency to the 
 philosophical soul of the doctor. He would 
 watch them by the hour, sympathizing with their 
 metaphysically thoughtful ways. He would study 
 their awkward and ungainly motions on the ground, 
 and wonder that anything so ungraceful on foot 
 could be so exquisitely elegant and graceful in the 
 air when on the wing. These queer creatures stay 
 around the market, and although the law forbids 
 their being fed, as it is found Avith them as with 
 human buzzards that necessity is the mother of scav- 
 engering, your butcher is always ready to throw 
 them a surreptitious piece of meat for your amuse- 
 ment. They are the only street cleaners, and if they 
 got their dinners gratuituosly they might cease their 
 useful public labors. 
 
 On January tenth we tore ourselves away from
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 53 
 
 Charleston, bidding good bye to its pretty streets, 
 its tall spires, its beautiful gardens, and its pleasant 
 inhabitants, among whom we must especially men- 
 tion Commander Merril Miller of the Light-house 
 service, who was very kind in furnishing us charts 
 and assisting us in many ways. We bid a last farewell 
 to Forts Su inter and Moultrie, and all the historic 
 memories which are entwined with those names ; to 
 Sullivan's Island, the Coney Island of Charleston, to 
 the Three Sisters, three palmettos which guard the 
 gate where once the confederate soldier stood sentry, 
 and to the tomb of Oceola close by, to the buzzards 
 and the beauties of the city, catching a last glimpse of 
 White Point Park to which we waived a tender adieu. 
 We headed our course to wards the creek which has re- 
 ceived the euphuistic appellation of " Wappoo Cut." 
 We carried away from Charleston this one valuable 
 piece of information: to make " Hop-in- John," boil 
 one quart of cow peas (a sort of small bean), and one 
 pound of bacon till thoroughly cooked, then put in 
 two quarts of rice, boil for about half an hour longer 
 and until well done, then add salt and pepper. This 
 recipe came from the colored chef of the Charleston 
 hotel and must be correct. Hence hereafter no man 
 or woman can claim to be so ignorant that they can- 
 not cook "Hop-in- John." 
 
 Beyond Charleston we had our first disagreeable 
 adventure ; it occurred when we were running 
 through Wappoo Cut. We had been offered a 
 volunteer tow by a small steam tug that we 
 met there, but had hardly hitched fast to her,
 
 54 THE IHLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 before a passenger steamer came in sight going the 
 same way. This vessel gradually gained on us, and 
 when she was close at hand, finding there was no 
 room to pass, as the cut is extremely narrow near 
 its outlet where we were, ran deliberately between 
 our yacht and the tug, cutting our stern line away 
 and nearly sinking us. This was an occasion, in 
 which we should have been justified in shooting the 
 pilot at his post, but we were in a foreign country, 
 so to speak, and all we did was to cast loose our 
 lines and get clear the best we could. The whole 
 performance was the less excusable, because the 
 wheelman saw there were ladies on board our boat, 
 and that we were strangers. As this was the only 
 piece of discourtesy shown us on our entire trip, I 
 give the name of the vessel which was guilty of it, 
 and warn all passengers to shun the "Pilot Boy." 
 It was by good luck alone that we escaped, for 
 hardly had we got clear, than the two steamers 
 jammed together, filling the cut from side to side, 
 so that both were aground, and we heard the crash- 
 ing of timbers and saw them fast there for nearly 
 an hour. Had the "Heartsease" been between 
 them, she would have been crushed. If any of our 
 readers go South by the inland passage from Charles- 
 ton, and it is a pleasant way of travel, we hope they 
 will in a measure revenge our wrongs, and give a 
 brutal captain a lesson in decent behavior, by refus- 
 ing to patronize the " Pilot Boy." 
 
 One of the most interesting features of the coun- 
 try we were now passing was the rice fields. These
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 55 
 
 were separated by dykes, and being nearly rectangu- 
 lar, gave a novel appearance to the low, marshy 
 land. Had we known where to go, we could prob- 
 ably have had good English snipe shooting. But 
 we did not stop to give Mr. Green a chance to inter- 
 view any one to find out. AVe, however, saw num- 
 berless flocks of bay snipe on the lower part of the 
 South Edisto, where the wind left us one night, and 
 where Mr. Green killed a couple of dozen. On the 
 following day, that gentleman was so pleased with 
 the performance of the yacht in crossing St. Helena 
 Sound in a squall, that he insisted on our putting 
 to sea, upon the ground that he was tired of such 
 tame sailing. The rest of the party were nothing 
 loth, and the good little ship was soon across the 
 bar and on the broad bosom of old Mother Ocean, 
 a very step-mother as she can at times prove herself 
 to be. Unfortunately, the wind died out, and we 
 were becalmed or nearly so, and crawled slowly past 
 Fripp's Inlet. When we were just outside Port 
 Eoyal breakers, which we reached at sundown, there 
 was a dead calm, and we drifted backwards till we 
 came to anchor in some four fathoms of water. 
 
 Our luck did not desert us, and before dark a 
 nice breeze sprang up, which carried us into the 
 harbor and up to the mouth of Skull Creek, where 
 we passed the night in perfect comfort. Next 
 morning the wind came out strong from the north- 
 east, blowing what sailors would call half a gale of 
 wind. We got under way as soon as we could, 
 and were soon slashing along at a good nine miles
 
 56 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 ^ 
 
 an hour. To be sure of our speed, I proposed to 
 make a log line. Now there is one point about Seth 
 Green, winch is if possible more decidedly developed 
 than another; while he is perfectly satisfied that 
 anything he does is better done than it ever was, 
 ever will, or ever can be, by any one else, he is 
 equally well convinced that no one else can do any- 
 thing that he cannot, so when I made this pro- 
 position he simply smiled an incredulous smile. 
 Under the force of that implication, a log line had 
 to be made, and made to work, if all hands had to 
 swear that she was making ten miles an hour when 
 she was only making two. 
 
 It was an original species of a log. I knew the 
 proper divisions for a fourteen second glass, which 
 was the one we had on board, but the "chip" had 
 to be manufactured out of the side of an old cigar 
 box. I never shall forget Seth's air of triumph, 
 when having driven in the pin too hard, it did not 
 slip out at the scientific jerk I gave when " time " 
 was called on the first trial, the result being that 
 the line parted when I was drawing it in. This 
 merely encouraged me, as there was no difficulty in 
 curing that defect, the only danger having been 
 that my improvised "chip" would not hold well 
 enough. So the log was soon in working order, and 
 informed us that we were running nine miles an 
 hour, and repeated the figure so often, that the 
 skeptic was convinced, and asked me to join him 
 while he apologized. 
 
 More bay snipe of all sorts, little and big, but no
 
 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 57 
 
 time to shoot them. They were flying about by 
 twos, by threes, by dozens, by hundreds, but the 
 wind was too fair and too fresh for us to lose it. 
 AVe might be punished by being reduced to living 
 on canned food, which, with the exception of corned 
 beef, vegetables, and preserves, was an abomination 
 to the entire party, and we did not stop voluntarily, 
 till we reached Jekyl's Creek. In reference to 
 JekyPs Creek, there is an entry in my log, that is 
 interesting to show how history repeats itself; 
 "Oysters Excellent.". Half a century befo*re, 
 Professor Bache, who made the very charts by 
 which we were sailing, had appreciated the excel- 
 lence of the Jekyl Creek oysters, and had them 
 barrelled and sent to him every year. I doubt, how- 
 ever, whether he knew how to cook them, at least 
 in the quantity necessary for a hungry yachting 
 party, and with the limited cooking appliances of a 
 yacht. 
 
 They are called '' Raccoon Oysters," for the reason 
 that the raccoons exhibited so much human nature 
 in first appreciating their excellence, and in getting 
 at their contents. They exist in immense mounds 
 and piles, and to the Northern eye seem inex- 
 haustible in numbers, covering hundreds, if not 
 thousands of square miles, and averaging three feet 
 thick. They line the shores of the creeks and 
 water courses like two walls, and cling to branches 
 of bushes, till it can be truly said of them that they 
 grow on trees. Their natural position is with their 
 edges upward, and these are nearly as sharp as
 
 58 THE INLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 razors, and will cut one's fingers or a raccoon's paw 
 terribly, unless care is taken in handling them. 
 The 'coon's plan is to slyly watch at low tide, when 
 the beds are bare, till the unsuspicious bivalve, 
 longing for a breath of the pure air of heaven as a 
 change from the insipid diet of salt water, opens 
 his mouth, when he quietly creeps forward and 
 drops a piece of shell into the opening. Mas- 
 ter oyster endeavors to resume his natural close- 
 ness of mouth, but in vain ; the early closing move- 
 ment has no reference to him. 
 
 My plan of treatment was different, although the 
 final consequence to the oyster was about the same. 
 To open such sharp-edged creatures in the ordinary 
 way would soon have put our crew, experienced in 
 oyster opening though they were, hors du combat, or 
 to state it in English, useless for rope-hauling. 
 Even to separate them from one another was a peril- 
 ous job, so I hit upon the simple plan of putting 
 them in bunches just as they grew into the ovens of 
 the two stoves. There I let them roast till they 
 opened their mouths of their own accord, precisely 
 as they had done for the raccoon, but under a little 
 more compulsion. Cooked in this way they were so 
 delicious as to be worth a trip to Jekyl's Creek 
 merely to get. We almost lived on Jekyl Creek 
 oysters, and if any one of the party got out of spirits, 
 if Mr. Green or the Doctor wanted to propitiate one 
 of the queens of the yacht, and the Doctor especially 
 was continually engaged in that way, he never failed 
 with a roasted raccoon oyster.
 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 
 IN FLORIDA. 
 
 And now we are at Fernandina, in Florida at last. 
 It has been a long but a delightful trip. Of all the 
 yachting we ever did, and all of us have been more 
 or less followers of the sea, that is, the inland sea, 
 since childhood, we agreed unanimously this sail 
 from New York to the South by the inland naviga- 
 tion, was the most delightful. It was an unbroken 
 charm from the beginning to the end, with no more 
 of real danger about it than would have been en- 
 countered on Broadway under falling bricks and 
 over caving vaults. The variety of scenery was 
 charming, the oddity of the trees and plants most 
 interesting, and had we had the time to devote to it, 
 the fishing and shooting would have been superb. 
 
 We had passed old Fernandina, and came to 
 anchor opposite the new town of the same name, 
 which had been selected on account of its having 
 a better harbor in a norther, that terror of south- 
 ern latitudes in winter, and which must have raked 
 the old town pretty thoroughly. We had to go 
 ashore at once. The tides have a great rise and 
 fall, and we were glad to avail ourselves of the boat 
 club landing which was kindly placed at our dis- 
 posal. We found Fernandina a quaint old town, 
 with a mixture of newness and age about it. North-
 
 60 IX FLOEIDA. 
 
 ern men coming for their health had brought North- 
 ern ways and extravagances ; there were modern 
 villas and trim gardens, but the old mansions were 
 still to be seen, and a few of the ancient houses built 
 of coquina, a combination of lime and shell. No 
 innovations could do away with the Southern foliage, 
 which here was in rank growth and profusion. We 
 saw orange trees in full bearing ; palmetto trees in 
 abundance, from the scrub saw-palmetto to the 
 lordly cabbage palm, and cactuses six feet high, to- 
 gether with all the other trees and plants of the 
 warm latitudes. 
 
 There is a fine shell road to the sea beach that is 
 so hard that the wheels of a wagon scarcely make a 
 mark upon it. This beach is the favorite promenade 
 drive of natives and visitors in the season which had 
 not come quite yet, although near at hand. Boys 
 in the streets were selling sugar-canes at five cents 
 a stick, and banana bushes, which are herbacious 
 plants, were growing in many of the gardens. 
 Mr. Green proceeded first to indulge in the entire 
 luxuries of a barber's establishment that he found, 
 and then to interview the whole population. He 
 came to the yacht in time for supper, laden with 
 information and two fine Southern weakfish, which 
 are much better to eat than our Northern variety, 
 and which are locally known as trout. 
 
 The fishing around Fernandina is exceedingly 
 good, and we found the colored population, which 
 takes to fishing as naturally as the bee is nautically 
 supposed to take to a tar bucket, everywhere, pur-
 
 IN FLORIDA. 61 
 
 suing the finny tribes through the numerous creeks 
 and arms of the sea. Here we saw for the first time 
 the circular cast net. It was used for catching the 
 enormous shrimp or prawn, which, while shaped 
 like the common shrimp, has a body six inches long, 
 and feelers still longer. This curious creature is 
 mostly used for bait, though it is excellent eating 
 when boiled. There is good sheepsheading in the 
 creek opposite the last house before reaching the cut, 
 and as it was impossible to keep Mr. Green quiet 
 longer without a day's fishing, we had to let him go 
 while the rest of us enjoyed the mere pleasure of 
 existence in the delicious climate. "\Ve ate oranges 
 and sucked sugar-cane in true childhood style, and 
 wandered through the village while he was pursuing 
 science. We were not a little ashamed of ourselves 
 when he returned with a magnificent string of 
 sheepshead, both the large and small kinds, sea 
 trout, and a dozen other varieties, victualling the 
 ship for several days. Then our sails were once more 
 set and we were off for the further South, for there 
 always is a higher height and a deeper depth; so there 
 is a further south, a further west, and a more inac- 
 cessible north. We did not go far, however, before 
 we had to stop. Not that there was any dire neces- 
 sity, not that any member of our party was sick, nor 
 that the wind or the bread had given out ; not that 
 we had lost our course or were actually impeded in 
 any wise, but still we had to stop in order to catch 
 crabs. I take it for granted that there is none of 
 my readers so unfortunate as never to have eaten
 
 62 IN FLORIDA. 
 
 that most delicious of table luxuries, the hard-shell 
 for I have never given my allegiance to the soft- 
 crab. If that is so, then I will have no occasion 
 to make further explanation, when I say that the 
 finest crabs which we got in the Southern waters, we 
 caught at Fernandina, or rather between that place 
 and Jacksonville, for the crabbing was good all the 
 way. Mr. Seth Green is especially fond of these 
 strange animals, who insist on wearing their bones 
 outside of their skins, and no inducement except 
 satiety will persuade him away from good crabbing 
 ground. The Doctor is also found of crabs, and so 
 were all the rest of those on board, and hence there 
 was not the slightest objection when Mr. Green 
 made the following sensible remark : 
 
 " Well now that we have got to Florida, don't you 
 think it 'most time to begin to enjoy ourselves? You 
 have kept us all hard at work as if our lives depend- 
 ed on it, driving away through good weather and 
 bad, through rain and shine in order to get here, and 
 now that we are here don't you think that you might 
 let up for a few days at least till we could have a 
 little of the pleasure we came after?" 
 
 The wild ducks which we had killed in Currituck 
 were gone long ago, the snipe we had found on the 
 way down, had lasted only a short time, but Mr. 
 Green bad supplied us with all the fish we could eat, 
 oysters lay around us begging to be picked up and 
 roasted, and now we had an unlimited supply of 
 crabs, which merely requested us to offer them a piece 
 of refuse meat in exchange for their luscious bodies.
 
 IK FLOBIDA. 63 
 
 If a man wants to live well and cheaply let him go 
 to Florida, there certainly never was such a place 
 for a yachting expedition. "When we had boiled a 
 reserve of nearly a hundred crabs, and we had all 
 eaten as many as we could, we ceased crabbing and 
 went to sailing once more. 
 
 Instead of going through the Sisters Creek, which 
 is the shorter course, we stood out to sea from Fort 
 George Inlet and ran into the St. John's, a thing 
 which I would advise no man to do unless he was 
 well acquainted with the bars, or had like myself a 
 very light draft vessel, for both the channels are 
 narrow and shoal. When we were once inside the 
 St. John's we got out our nets in order to ascertain 
 just what the waters contained. Although net fish- 
 ing is not so stimulating as that with the hook and 
 line, it is more certain even if both are in skilful 
 hands. 
 
 We were rewarded by some small yearling, moss- 
 bunkers and bluefish, which, while the Doctor looked 
 on them as a disappointment, were valuable as set- 
 tling the question that both of these fish spawn in 
 the Southern waters. A further result of our efforts 
 was, that we hurried on to Jacksonville as fast as we 
 could. On the way we ran over a shad net. It was 
 early in the morning, and there was a sort of haze 
 on the water, so that we did not see the log that the 
 fishermen tie to the end of their nets, to point out 
 where it is. The owners of it were taking it in from 
 the other side of their boat, and even so old a 
 fisherman as Mr. Green was deceived as to the direc-
 
 64 IN FLOEIDA. 
 
 tion in which it was stretched. We carried a piece 
 of it away with us, and had to cut it off from our 
 rudder. For this we were sorry, but were miles off 
 before we had even got an idea of the extent of apol- 
 ogy we would have to make, or of the damage for 
 which we would gladly have paid. 
 
 At Jacksonville we felt almost as much at home 
 as if we were in New York. We found friends there, 
 we made others, and enjoyed ourselves so thoroughly 
 that it was only the imperative demands of sport 
 that compelled us to move on. Just in the neigh- 
 borhood of so large a city there is naturally not 
 much to shoot or to catch. There are innumerable 
 cat-fish which Mr. Green was never tired of taking, 
 and which weighed as much as ten pounds each.. 
 He insisted they were excellent eating, a matter in 
 which we allowed him to have his opinion without 
 contesting the question. The water on the surface 
 is fresh, and some black-bass can always be caught 
 in the vicinity. The condition of the water in the 
 St. John's is different from that of any other stream 
 with which I am familiar. Even as high up as Pilat- 
 ka, eighty miles above, the surface water is absolute- 
 ly fresh, while near the bottom there is a current so 
 salt that crabs are caught in the shad nets. The 
 salter fluid seems to be denser and heavier than the 
 other, and will not mingle with it, so that we have 
 the anomaly of both fresh and salt-water fish 
 being caught at the same time and place. 
 
 Into the St. John's there empty at every few miles 
 tributary streams that are rarely ascended by the
 
 Itf FLORIDA. 65 
 
 visiting sportsman, and where the birds and fish exist 
 in their primeval abundance and fearlessness. It is 
 unnecessary to specify these by name, or to particu- 
 larize any as better than others, for they are essen- 
 tially alike. We could not explore them all, but 
 those which we did, we found filled with fish and 
 with a fair amount of game. It was too early in the 
 year for alligators, if they can be called game, to 
 show themselves, but birds were to be had plenti- 
 fully, and fish were simply innumerable. Of these 
 we killed so many that we had to salt them down. 
 There is an additional interest, the interest of new 
 explorations, in ascending the secluded rivers, and 
 I advise every tourist who visits this portion of Flor- 
 ida in his own conveyance, not to omit going up 
 one or more of them. 
 
 This was a late season, shad were running, and we 
 had them continually on our table, but roses were 
 not in full bloom in the open air, and as for straw- 
 berries, which are usually abundant by New Year's, 
 they had not come in at all yet. We had bought up 
 all the curiosities that we could distribute among 
 our Northern friends ; we had played with the baby 
 alligators in the jewelry stores ; we had listened to 
 the first installment of the wonderful Florida stories; 
 we had dined at all the excellent Jacksonville hotels, 
 and were ready to withdraw once more from civili- 
 zation. So the Heartsease spread her sails again, 
 and started up the river. I say "up," because by 
 the current our course was up stream ; but it was 
 down by the map. We were going south, the St.
 
 66 IN FLOKIDA. 
 
 John's being one of the few of the North American 
 rivers which seem to run the wrong way, that is, from 
 the south to the north. In our short stay in Jack- 
 sonville we had learned that alligator-tooth jewelry 
 is occasionally made of celluloid ; that one of the 
 best drinks in the world of bar-keeping is a punch 
 compounded from the native sour orange ; that 
 Florida stories are always reliable, even when they 
 assert that mosquitoes are so abundant that hogs 
 make meals of them, or inform us that the favorite 
 game fish of Florida, the tarpon, jumps six feet out 
 of water when he is hooked, or that sharks will seize 
 a man if they have to leap as high as the deck of the 
 yacht to do so. In leaving Jacksonville, we supposed 
 we were leaving all this behind us, not knowing that 
 Florida is full of quaint jewelry made, as the jewelry 
 of no other part of the world, out of fish scales, sau- 
 rian teeth, sea beans, shells, orange tree woods, and 
 sharks' molars ; that everywhere there are wonder- 
 ful stories which only differ from one another in 
 size ; that palmetto hats were to be bought in every 
 village store, and that sour oranges hang from innu- 
 merable trees, valueless for traffic, and only begging 
 to be made into nectar fit for gods. 
 
 By the time the Doctor had made these philo- 
 sophical reflections, Heartsease was tearing along 
 before a favoring breeze past Mandarin, past the 
 Magnolia Hotel and Green Cove Spring; past Tocoi, 
 the terminus of the St. Augustine Railroad, till she 
 made anchorage by nightfall off Pilatka. On the 
 way we had put up many ducks, had seen the cows
 
 Ltf FLOBIDA. 07 
 
 up to their backs in water feeding off the cahbage at 
 the bottom, and thrusting their heads clear under 
 to get it, and we began to realize that in the end we 
 might come to believe anything of the wonders of 
 this wonderful land. On the last day of our stay in 
 Jacksonville, we had given a little lunch on board, 
 and to show what dinners can be got up there, and 
 how easily, I will reproduce the bill of fare. Every- 
 thing had been prepared on board, and although 
 our cabin could only seat twelve, we placed before 
 the guests cold turkey, beef and tongue, chicken 
 salad, prepared by the Doctor in most artistic style, 
 stewed oysters, roast potatoes, radishes, and for des- 
 sert banana salad an invention of the better part of 
 the party, Dummit Grove oranges, sapidillas, and 
 grape fruit, with pieces montees of palmetto leaves 
 and sour oranges en branches. There was a little 
 pate de foies gras also, but that need not be counted, 
 because it came from the Xorth. 
 
 TVe found that when we had reached Pilatka the 
 stories, instead of diminishing, developed yet more 
 astonishing proportions. The mosquitoes, that the 
 hogs fed on at Jacksonville, put out the head light of 
 the locomotive at Pilatka, extinguished a bonfire, and 
 made nothing of the negroes " light wood torches;" 
 the tarpon of Jacksonville could only jump six feet 
 high when hooked, while the tarpon of Pilatka, with- 
 out being hooked, bounded clear over the rail of the 
 steamboat Seth Low, which was ten feet from the 
 water, struck the captain in the stomach, and knock- 
 ed him down. "We had not been at Pilatka two days,
 
 68 IN FLORIDA. 
 
 before we were ready to swallow any mental halluci- 
 nation, so rapidly does faith grow in the glorious, 
 and balmy air of Florida. 
 
 If Jacksonville had been attractive, Pilatkawas 
 equally so. Opposite to it is the famous orange grove 
 of Mr. Hart, which we had to visit, and where we 
 ate our first oranges, plucked by ourselves from the 
 trees, beside tasting mandarins and tangerins, lem- 
 ons, limes, guava and bananas, and that best of all 
 oranges, the grape fruit. There were great planta- 
 tions of bananas, which grow by suckers from the 
 roots, and increase like weeds. They have to be three 
 years old before they bear, and the development of 
 the flower and fruit, which was going on while we 
 were there, was a pretty sight. The top of the stalk 
 turns over and produces a huge purple flower of a 
 single leaf, as large as the hand of a giant. From 
 under this large leaf starts a circle of small sprouts 
 like fingers. The big leaf falls off, but from the 
 ends of the fingers burst other, much smaller purple 
 flowers. Then below the row of fingers grows an- 
 other large flower like the first, and it also uncovers 
 another row of fingers, so on till the entire bunch of 
 bananas, as we know it in the market, is formed. 
 Even then the flower point does not cease growing, 
 but exhibits flower after flower, which are merely 
 ornamental and do not result in fruit. Sprouts start 
 so freely from the roots, that the young bushes have 
 to be cut away every year with scythes, or they would 
 become crowded, and the fruit degenerate. Every 
 day, that was spent studying the wonderful
 
 IN FLORIDA. 69 
 
 productions of Florida, every new tree or bush, 
 which attracted our attention by its beauty, 
 or its oddity, every new species of fruit, 
 which charmed our palate with its originality of 
 flavor, made us more in love with this interesting 
 country, and wish that it and its accompaniments 
 could only exist in a colder climate. There was but 
 one feeling in the minds of the party on leaving Mr. 
 Hart's plantation, which was that each of us could 
 own an orange grove, and have it close at home. 
 
 One evening as we were returning after a sailing 
 excursion to visit the neighborhood, we heard cries 
 which sounded like cries of distress. The negroes 
 were so in the habit of laughing at, and jibing one 
 another, that we at first took no notice of these. It 
 was nearly night, so dark, that objects could not be 
 distinguished at any considerable distance; but the 
 cries continuing, we determined to see whether they 
 meant merely fun or something more serious, and 
 kept away in the direction from which they came. 
 That moment's delay cost at least one man his life, 
 and brought sorrow to one household. After sailing 
 a few minutes, we were able to distinguish an object 
 in the water, which looked like a boat capsized. 
 Such it turned out to be, and as we approached, 
 we could make out a number of men clinging to its 
 sides. It was a launch belonging to the crew of a 
 steam ferry boat, and was used by the men after 
 their day's work was over to take them across the riv- 
 er, as they left the steamer on the other side. It was 
 abundantly able to carry the number that started in
 
 70 IN FLORIDA. 
 
 it, and more, but some of them had been pouring 
 out libations to Bacchus, or had been carried away 
 by foolish animal spirits, we could not exactly deter- 
 mine which, and the result was, that the party of 
 merry-makers was suddenly turned into one of 
 mourners. 
 
 We luffed up alongside, and lay to, while our men 
 lowered the boats, and picked up all the poor fellows 
 who were left. Two were unaccounted for, one of 
 whom had been seen to let go his hold and sink. Sev- 
 eral of the others would haye soon followed his exam- 
 ple, except for our timely arrival, for the water hap- 
 pened to be cool that evening, and quickly benumb- 
 ed their warm southern blood, although they were 
 whites, and not blacks, as we at first supposed. Af- 
 ter they were all on board, and it was apparent that 
 there was no use in looking for their lost comrades, 
 we hitched a line to their boat, and towed it behind 
 us towards the shore. As the men crowded on our 
 deck, they seemed so miserable, and did so tremble 
 with the cold, that the hearts of the ladies were 
 touched, and nothing would do but they must be 
 brought into the cabin, and warmed at the stove, 
 there being not room enough for so many in the fore- 
 castle. Their clothes dripped and drained over our 
 pretty carpet, and left stains, which never were to come 
 out, but we felt only too glad that we had been able 
 to be of some use to any of our fellow " toilers of the 
 sea." We finally warmed their blood, and put fresh 
 life into them with liberal rations of rum, which was 
 fifty years old. Amid their sufferings what caused
 
 IN FLORIDA. 71 
 
 them the most pain, was, that they would have to 
 tell the wife of the engineer, who was lost, of his 
 death. This they dreaded as much as they would 
 have dreaded another struggle in the water. 
 
 There is often danger from the heavy fogs, which 
 roll up dense, and dark on the St. John's in the 
 night time, and we saw several accidents from that 
 cause. We took the precaution of always anchor- 
 ing, when not in port, on some flat, and making 
 sure of a well filled anchor light. The steamers 
 invariably follow the channel, for their own protec- 
 tion, and the pilots run at full speed, as in that way 
 alone can they be sure of their position, a knowledge 
 which comes to them by habit. There was, how- 
 ever, one annoyance, which no lights would pre- 
 vent, no mosquito nets keep out, and no preparation 
 mitigate, the plague of gnats; they come, when they 
 make up their minds to come, in myriads, pour down 
 the companion way, preferring the inside of the 
 cabin to the outside, make themselves at home, push 
 into the state-rooms, and do not care in the least 
 how many millions of their number you immolate. 
 I had been advised that insect powder, if burned in 
 the cabin, would drive them out. On their first 
 visitation I tried the remedy. It is to be feared that 
 the heartless person who gave me that recipe was a 
 practical joker. There is nothing in the nature of 
 gnats to specially provoke merriment so far as I 
 could ever see, or feel, but there are persons who ex- 
 tract pleasure from a funeral. I placed a small quan- 
 tity of the powder on apiece of paper, which I light-
 
 72 IN FLOKIDA. 
 
 ed. The paper was soon consumed, but the powder 
 remained intact, in fact it preserved that part of the 
 paper, which was directly under it. Then I added 
 some chips, and laying the whole on an old plate, 
 tried it again; failure number two, the powder was 
 still unconsumed, and the gnats, who had not neg- 
 lected these opportunities, while I was busy, to pay 
 their respects to me, were as happy and lively as ever. 
 Determined not be foiled, I then built a fire in the 
 stove, and leaving the stove holes open, poured the 
 powder on the flame. In vain, it only put out the 
 fire. After that I lost faith in the virtues of insect 
 powder, and had to endure as well as I could, lamen- 
 tations coming faintly through the doors of the 
 state-rooms "Oh Avhat are these strange things that 
 are biting us so." Patience seems to be the only 
 cure for gnat bites, and we did not carry that article 
 with us. 
 
 " Doctor," said Mr. Green one morning, after 
 we had spent a couple of weeks in the delightful 
 laziness of sight seeing and curiosity buying, " how 
 much longer do you think the skipper intends to 
 keep us idling here ? " He had devoted his attention 
 lately to dragging the Doctor with him on his inter- 
 viewing expeditions, and they had just returned 
 from their tenth call upon the northern shad fisher- 
 men, who, having brought their nets from their 
 homes to try and catch the earliest run of shad, 
 were camping in the woods beyond the town. 
 
 "I am afraid," replied our medical associate with 
 base dishonesty, for he was fully as fond of the dolce
 
 IN FLORIDA. 73 
 
 far niente as myself, " that he intends to remain 
 here for the rest of his natural life." 
 
 " What, going to stay here for ever!" came from 
 the pretty mouth, which belonged to a pretty head, 
 that just then appeared above the companion way, 
 " I do like to go fishing, and get away from people." 
 
 " Yes," came faintly from another in the bowels 
 of the cabin, " I am always fond of a change." 
 
 " We havn't caught a fish since day before yes- 
 terday," continued Seth in a most injured tone of 
 voice. "I should like to catch something beside cat- 
 fish once more." 
 
 This is the sort of thing that the yachtsman has 
 to bear from his mutinous crew, and there is but one 
 way of dealing with it. I went forward without a 
 word, called my men, and we were underway so 
 soon, that the breath was nearly taken from the 
 party, and I heard low grumblings about provisions, 
 which ought to have been laid in, and curiosities, 
 which were to have been bought, and which never 
 could begot again, for an hour afterwards, as we were 
 rapidly running up the river. 
 
 The weather had become hot, the thermometer 
 marking eighty-nine in the shade, and mosquitoes 
 made their appearance in the evenings ; for those 
 we were prepared, as the yacht was especially fitted 
 with mosquito screens. But the heat was too much 
 for us, and it was unanimously determined that we 
 must take a bath. We had brought our bathing 
 dresses more by good luck than good management, 
 for we had no expectation of quite so summery a
 
 74 IN FLORIDA. 
 
 time in the midst of winter. We had been assured 
 that snakes never enter the waters of a sulphur 
 spring, and that there was a sulphur spring at We- 
 laka on our way. So we stopped where we thought 
 it must be according to the chart, and in that in- 
 stance, as in all others, the chart was right. In 
 fact from the beginning of our trip to the end we 
 found ourselves, by the aid of the charts, masters of 
 the situation, and generally much better informed 
 than the natives. 
 
 We anchored the yacht at the bend of the river 
 just below Welaka, and taking the small boats row- 
 ed into the spring, which was only a hundred yards 
 away. What a glorious sight it was, no puling little 
 affair, such as is called a spring at the North, but 
 a basin two hundred feet across, the water boil- 
 ing up in the centre in a jet as large round as a hogs- 
 head, and rising a foot above the surface, clear as crys- 
 tal, and gleaming like gems, the irridescent waves 
 spreading away from the central source in lines of 
 glistening transparency, the sunlight reflected from 
 every ripple, as from a thousand prisms. Such a 
 perfect bathing spot we had never seen before, it was 
 a bath-room fit for Diana and her nymphs. We 
 had put on our bathing clothes before leaving the 
 yacht, and it took us but a few moments to fasten our 
 boats and plunge overboard. 
 
 Snakes are one of the drawbacks of this warm 
 tropical State. On some of the keys on the Gulf 
 side, they are so numerous that no man is safe in 
 landing. The most deadly is the rattlesnake, but
 
 IN FLORIDA. 75 
 
 the most disagreeable is the mocassin, which, al- 
 though not so fatal, sometimes attacks a man in the 
 water without provocation. The latter's bite pro- 
 duces paralysis more frequently than death, but as 
 his attacks cannot be guarded against, he is really 
 a more unpleasant enemy. The traveller's safety in 
 bathing consists in seeking one of these wonderful 
 sulphur springs, into Avhich snakes do not enter, al- 
 though fish abound in them, looking like moving 
 motes in liquid amber. The temperature of these 
 springs is not cold, being the same as that of the 
 rivers, but there is something exceedingly exhilarat- 
 ing in bathing in them. The feeling of the water is 
 different from that of any other bath. There is a 
 peculiar sense of cleanliness, and a lightness of spir- 
 its, which may account for the fancy of Ponce de 
 Leon, that he had at last found the source of eternal 
 youth. Many of these springs are brought within the 
 destructive dominion of man, and are open to every 
 passing tourist, but the one where we were Avas sa- 
 cred to him, who has his own conveyance, and was 
 not to be defiled or polluted by the common way- 
 farer. 
 
 We had a delightful bath. There is a common 
 delusion that the water of the sulphur springs is so 
 thin and light, that it will not support the best 
 swimmer. We soon ascertained that this was a to- 
 tally unfounded fancy, so far as the Welaka spring 
 was concerned. We not only swam to and fro 
 without difficulty, but enjoyed an additional pleas- 
 ure in getting directly over the boiling spout itself, 
 4
 
 76 IN FLORIDA. 
 
 and being buoyed up by it, where the water was ten 
 feet deep. All of us were sorry, when evening and 
 hunger compelled us to return to the yacht. 
 
 The stories concerning the dangerous nature of 
 the snakes of Florida are probably exaggerated, as 
 we saw no more of them, than we would have seen in 
 the same amount of country life at the North. The 
 negro children bathe off the docks of Pilatka and 
 Jacksonville as a common thing, and later in the 
 year, when the peril from snakes is greater. There 
 are spots, where, as I have said, they are to be dread- 
 ed, and we heard well authenticated stories of men 
 being snake bitten, but on the other hand old hun- 
 ters, who were in the woods most of their time, told 
 us they were never troubled by their attacks, and 
 the camping out parties, which we encountered all 
 over, seemed not disturbed by them. Still, while 
 on the subject, I will give the prescription which 
 was kindly furnished us by Dr. Ken worthy of Jack- 
 sonville, and which will doubtless prove a better 
 cure than the common one of getting drunk on 
 whiskey; mix two tablespoonfuls of the carbonate of 
 ammonia with enough spirits of camphor to make a 
 paste. Apply this on a rag to the bite, changing the 
 rag as often as it gets discolored. Our medical as- 
 sociate gave his approval to the remedy, and if those 
 two authorities could not cure a snake bite, no one 
 can. 
 
 As our little yacht shot out from the St. John's 
 River, nearly two hundred miles above the place 
 where we had entered it, and came into full view of
 
 1ST FLOEIDA. 7? 
 
 that beautiful sheet of water, Lake George, thous- 
 ands of wild ducks rose three gunshots off, and flew 
 away. The sight rejoiced our eyes, for we had pass- 
 ed several days on the river without seeing any large 
 hirds except the strange water-turkeys, or snake- 
 birds. Unfortunately we had no battery with us, 
 and had to trust to finding a point of land that the 
 ducks would approach. This was no easy thing to 
 do, and we sailed half the length of the north shore, 
 before reaching a promising spot, a narrow point 
 running out between two bays, and at the outer 
 end of which the birds were crowded toge'ther in 
 flocks of thousands. There was nothing to be done 
 till the next morning, and seeing a farm house on 
 the neck of land, Mr. Seth Green went ashore to 
 get what information he could from the owner. 
 This gentleman was at the moment working in his 
 garden, and although the thermometer stood at 
 eighty in the shade, he wore the encumbrance of a 
 pair of long India rubber boots. As these seemed 
 rather out of accord with the torrid temperature, he 
 was delicately asked his reasons for wearing them; 
 "well," he replied philosophically, "they cannot 
 strike over those." This sounded ominously, for 
 although, as I have said, we had heard a good deal 
 about snakes, we had seen nothing of them yet. 
 Our doubts were removed when the gentleman 
 pointed out an immense dead rattlesnake hanging 
 on the limb of a bush, and added, " I killed him yes- 
 terday." We returned promptly to the yacht, con- 
 tented to make our explorations by water thereaf-
 
 ?8 IH FLORIDA. 
 
 ter, till we should get over the effect of so sudden an 
 introduction to a new acquaintance. 
 
 Next day we devoted to the ducks, but we were 
 not properly rigged for them, and soon learned that 
 without a battery we could not expect to kill many 
 in the wide waters of Lake George, they were most- 
 ly broad-bills, but did not seem to be as healthy as 
 our Northern ducks. One of my men, who was an 
 old gunner, said that their feathers appeared to be 
 burnt, as though they had been scorched by the 
 sun. They are continually chased by all the visit- 
 ors to Florida, silly shooters, who fire at them from 
 every passing steamboat, or who pursue them in the 
 small steam yachts, which are becoming a feature of 
 Southern travel. The day following, we sailed across 
 the lake to the south-west corner, intending to as- 
 cend the Juniper Creek, which empties into it there. 
 Mr. Green and myself were all of the party who 
 cared to make the exploration; we took one of the 
 small boats, and struck into the outlet, which we 
 had found without difficulty and commenced the as- 
 cent. It was a strange, desolate river, quite unlike 
 our Northern streams, slow and sluggish most of the 
 way, half grown up with grasses, weeds, and cabbage 
 plants, lined on either side by a rank, tall mass of 
 reeds, that were yellow with age, and approaching 
 decay, overhung here and there by some Southern 
 plants or bushes, and once in a while winding be- 
 tween groves of palmettos. There was a sombre, 
 savage, and deadly appearance in the water itself. 
 We proceeded quietly for a time, but Mr. Green,
 
 IN FLORIDA. 79 
 
 who is more alive to the contents of a stream than 
 to its air of gloom or brightness, broke the silence. 
 
 " Now," he said, as lie began setting up his rod, 
 " I will show you my favorite rig for catching big- 
 mouthed bass. Look at that trolling spoon, it is 
 something of my own invention, although the tackle 
 shops are getting them lately." 
 
 He had a special arrangement of feathers and tin, 
 not be described on paper, but long experience has 
 made me skeptical about new all-killing inventions, 
 and possibly my countenance betrayed my thoughts, 
 for he went on, as he saw me getting out a cast of 
 bass flies. 
 
 " I know" he observed, throwing his lure over- 
 board, "that other rigs will take some, but you see 
 now, I shall have one within a minute." 
 
 I had no choice, as I was seated in the bow of the 
 boat, and could not have used a trolling spoon if I 
 had wished, as our lines would have fouled. I had to 
 put on flies and fish by casting. 
 
 " That is all very well," I replied, " at certain 
 times, and in a stream like this, but if we had a 
 large, deep river, I would rather use a number of flies 
 on a long leader." 
 
 " There," said Mr. Green at that moment as he 
 struck a fish, " what did I tell you. If you want 
 to take black-bass, particularly this kind 
 
 He never finished his observation, for at that mo- 
 ment a four-pound fish seized my fly, and it took 
 our joint skill and attention to keep from fouling. 
 He managed, however, to get his fish in quickly, as
 
 1ST FLORIDA. 
 
 it was a small one, and give me an opportunity to 
 play mine with the light tackle that I was using. 
 We saved them both, but they were only the fore- 
 runners of an unlimited number. The spoon did 
 undoubtedly kill the most, but there were all that 
 we both wanted, ten times over, and we had to stop 
 fishing, to avoid destroying more than we could use. 
 I had the satisfaction of catching the largest, how- 
 ever, with the fly. 
 
 We had brought a gun, as well as our fishing 
 tackle. Suddenly from out the bushes there rose 
 with much noise and flurry a large bird. I had 
 hardly time to grab my gnn, before he was out of 
 range, and although I fired, it was ineffectually. 
 
 " Oh, I am sorry you missed him," said Mr. 
 Green sadly, for he always takes a dejected view of 
 other people's failures, " that was a Limpkin, and I 
 should like to have got him.'' 
 
 "I thought it was a water turkey," I replied, re- 
 ferring to the queer creature that we had seen on 
 ever stick and stump in the St. John's. " But what- 
 ever it was, it was out of range when I fired." 
 
 " I think he was a Limpkin," persisted my com- 
 panion, '' don't you, Charley?" 
 
 The stream was becoming rapidly narrower, and 
 as that made the fishing more difficult, and we had 
 all the fish we wanted, AVC took in our lines. Soon 
 Charley had to cease rowing and resort to poling. 
 , We finally came to where it was so narrow that 
 there was scarcely room for the boat, and the over- 
 hanging branches and bushes swept against our
 
 IK FLOKIDA. 81 
 
 faces. We were just about to give up any idea of 
 further advance, when suddenly we shot out from 
 the small brook into a broad river. Instead of 
 having ascended to the head Avaters ef the Juniper, 
 we had hardly been in it at all, having mistaken 
 one of its mouths for the stream proper. The hour 
 was growing late, but this new river seemed so 
 attractive, we were so sure that it was the one we 
 had been looking for, and that it must lead into the 
 lake not far from where we had left our yacht, that 
 we determined to descend it instead of retracing 
 our course by the way we had come. Here it was 
 that I fired at and wounded a real Limpkin, as I 
 have already related. We went down with the cur- 
 rent, having in the broad stream a good chance to 
 use the oars. The sun dropped behind the trees, 
 which were more mimerous on the banks of this 
 stream than they had been on those of the other. 
 On and on, and still we did not come to the outlet. 
 It began to look as though we had made a mistake, 
 and this river was a different one from what we had 
 supposed. The prospect of spending the night 
 in the woods now forced itself upon us. My coat 
 was thin, and already the evening air felt chill ; we 
 could make a fire, for we were too old stagers to be 
 caught without matches, but the thought of snakes 
 was not pleasant, in spite of the assurances of their 
 rarity, and the excellence of our antidote. 
 
 Charley had been rowing a long time and was 
 getting tired, so I offered to ' ' spell " him. This I 
 did till the sun had gone entirely and darkness was
 
 82 IN" FLOKIDA. 
 
 closing in upon us fast. J3till no signs of the lake, 
 or of an end to this apparently endless river. 
 Strange noises rang through the forest, cries like 
 those of wild beasts, but such as we had never 
 heard before, often as we had passed the night in 
 the woods. I recalled what I had read of -the puma, 
 the dreaded Southern tiger, and realized the fact 
 that against him number four duck shot would be a 
 feeble defence. The noises grew louder and louder, 
 the forests fairly reverberated with the unearthly 
 screams till, when one more than usually horrible 
 burst upon our ears, Mr. Green inquired with a 
 composure, which seemed slightly assumed : 
 
 " What sort of an animal do you think it is that 
 makes a noise like that ? " 
 
 I had never heard anything so appalling in my 
 life before, but was not to be outdone by my asso- 
 ciate in coolness, and, replied in a hollow mockery 
 of jest: 
 
 "That ? Oh, that is a Limpkin. There can be 
 no doubt of that." 
 
 To this reply Mr. Green made no direct response, 
 though his face intimated that jokes on some occa- 
 sions were out of place. The unnatural stillness 
 of the country made these noises perhaps more 
 ominous and unearthly. There was not a breath 
 of air to stir the trees, no ripple or current to the 
 stream which might have diverted our thoughts by 
 its musical babble, and deathlike silence hung over 
 the land, except when broken by the ringing 
 screams. The night was getting darker and darker,
 
 I]ST FLORIDA. 83 
 
 and at last we came reluctantly to the conclusion 
 that we had better stop, in order to prepare our 
 camp and make sure that there were no rattlesnakes 
 while there was light enough to do so. 
 
 " Let us go to the next turn," said Seth, who 
 had even a greater dislike than the rest of us to 
 spending the night in the woods. "If we do not 
 see any signs of an outlet there we may as well give 
 it up." 
 
 "Agreed," I replied, as I bent once more to the 
 oars, " let us keep up hope." 
 
 AVe proceeded, but with little expectation of any 
 good results. What was our surprise and joy then, 
 on reaching the point, to behold the broad waters of 
 the lake spread out before us, and the Heartsease 
 lying in full view with her light up. The sight 
 gave me such vigor that I rowed the rest of the 
 way, although Charley announced that he was rested 
 and wanted to take the oars. 
 
 In spite of the beauty of the country, there is a 
 sense of desolation about the wilder parts of Florida. 
 The great trees, covered with moss, and many of 
 them going to decay ; the dull, sluggish rivers with 
 slow discolored current, the low lands never rising 
 above a shell-mound of twenty feet height, combine 
 to produce a feeling of dreary solitude. This was 
 particularly noticeable on the journey to and from 
 Florida, through the endless swamps, marshes, and 
 reedy islands, which border the narrow inland pas- 
 sages, and was only occasionally broken by passing 
 a town, or one of the few country seats that are to
 
 84 Ltf FLOHIDA. 
 
 be found on the unhealthy shores. Nor do there 
 seem to be many water fowl on the Southern Atlantic 
 Coast, until you pass to the south of St. Augustine 
 and reach the neighborhood of Indian River. In 
 making the trip to and from the St. John's, we only 
 saw, beside the ducks and English snipe the bay- 
 birds, of which I have spoken, and -a number of the 
 handsome and imposing white herons. These 
 stood in solemn grandeur on the shore of some 
 creek, and seemed too glorious to shoot. Occasion- 
 ally, however, we could not resist, and had to mur- 
 der them for their loveliness. Then one of us would 
 hide himself among the reeds on the shore, while 
 the other would go to the extreme end of the line 
 of stately creatures, and put them up. They fly 
 slowly along the edge of the water, and if the 
 sportsman is well hid, there is no difficulty in get- 
 ting a shot at them. They should never be killed, 
 unless it is to set them up and preserve them, us 
 was done for us by the Doctor. 
 
 In Lake George there were millions of mullets 
 jumping continually out of water, like dancing sil- 
 ver arrows, they would not take the fly, or trolling 
 spoon, and as we had all the fish we could use, we 
 did not try the net. We visited a splendid spring, 
 called by a name which seems to be given by com- 
 mon consent to most of the sulphur springs of Flor- 
 ida, that of " silver." It empties into the lake on 
 the western side, about half way down. A bank of 
 snail shells, which must have been cast up by the 
 waves, marks the outlet. Many of them are in good
 
 WILD TUKKEY TJ4AJ'
 
 IN FLORIDA. 87 
 
 preservation, and quite pretty. Several sorts of fish 
 were swimming hither and thither in the spring, and 
 the stream from it was filled with a thin green moss, 
 which the ladies converted into a becoming head 
 covering, and dubbed the "mermaid's wig." We 
 saw some big turtles and alligators and enjoyed a 
 bath. 
 
 It was not safe to take the yacht through the nar- 
 row and crooked river above Lake George, if we were 
 to limit ourselves in the remotest degree to time, for 
 none but free winds would move us either one way 
 or the other, so we had to leave our pleasant aquatic 
 mansion and descend to the humdrum of the little 
 stern wheel steamers, which were continually pass- 
 ing us, and tin-owing up fountains of water from 
 their latter ends. By the same means we explored 
 the Ocklawaha, which falls into the St. John's fur- 
 ther north. The vessels are adapted to winding 
 round through the circuitous bends of the streams, 
 where the trees nearly meet overhead. In order to 
 see their way, the pilots have to build fires of pine 
 knots at night on the top of the pilot house, which 
 gives a peculiarly romantic and interesting appear- 
 ance to the scene. On the way we saw no end of al- 
 ligators and forest birds, especially the famous Limp- 
 kin, which laughed, yelled and jeered at us in the 
 security of a regulation which forbids the discharge 
 of fire arms on board the boats. 
 
 But we had to be getting back, if we were to com- 
 plete our explorations of the rest of Florida, so as soon 
 as we could finish our steamboat travel, we hurried
 
 88 IK FLORIDA. 
 
 down stream once more to Jacksonville. The run 
 outside to St. Augustine is not a long one, but this 
 coast is more dangerous than that further north. 
 An easterly wind strikes it more heavily, and the 
 inlets are shoal. Especially is this the case in the 
 long run below Matanzas and Mosquito Inlets. In 
 fact I cannot do better than quote the words of a 
 report on the inland navigation of that section, 
 kindly furnished me by Mr. J. E. Hilgard, the effi- 
 cient Superintendent of the United States Coast Sur- 
 vey, to whom I am under many obligations for in- 
 formation and advice: 
 
 "There is no inland passage from the St. John's 
 to St. Augustine. You must cross St. John's bar 
 (with eight feet mean low water), but must take a pi- 
 lot, as the channel is constantly shifting and chang- 
 ing in depth. On the Avhole, I would advise taking a 
 smooth time at St. Mary's and going outside all the 
 way to St. Augustine. There is excellent anchorage 
 off Old Fernandina (but a short distance from the 
 bar); and the whole run is but about fifty miles, and 
 can be made in a few hours. 
 
 " When off St. Augustine, a pilot will take you up 
 to the town. There is nine feet on the bar, but it 
 constantly shifts. The famous * fresh water springs ' 
 in the ocean are situated eight miles S. by E half E. 
 from the < entering buoy ' of this inlet. 
 
 ''Bound to the southward, Matanzas River carries 
 you from St. Augustine through a distance of nearly 
 thirteen miles to Matanzas Inlet. The channel is 
 winding, but has deep water for a little over seven
 
 Itf FLOKIDA. 89 
 
 miles, where there is a seven-feet bar. Below this, 
 for nearly two miles, five feet is the least water, in 
 a crooked channel close under the eastern bank. 
 Thence are depths varying from nine to tAventy feet 
 until Matanzas Inlet is reached. The route to the 
 southward leads across this inlet with seven feet at 
 mean low water; and on entering the river again, on 
 the south side of the inlet, you will have but six feet. 
 Matanzas River heads in the midst of extensive 
 marshes between five and six miles to the southward 
 of the inlet; and but two feet can be carried through. 
 ' ' Beyond this there is no navigation. Wishing to 
 proceed still farther southward, you must retrace 
 your course to Matanzas Inlet, cross the bar and 
 skirt the Florida coast for about fifty miles to Mos- 
 quito Inlet. Your pilot (for you must have ob- 
 tained one at St. Augustine or you cannot enter at 
 all) will take you over the bar with about six feet at 
 mean low water the mean rise and fall being two 
 feet. Once in the inlet you may go to the north- 
 ward, through Halifax River to its head, twenty 
 miles above. "While in the narrow passage, which 
 extends from Mosquito Inlet for over five miles to 
 the northward, you will carry not less than ten feet; 
 but when the river expands you will find shoal water 
 the depths varying from three to nine feet, except 
 in occasional deep holes. The channel is very nar- 
 row, and can only be followed by the stakes. The 
 small settlements of Port Orange and Daytona are 
 situated on the western bank of this river. Three 
 feet at mean low water can be taken to its head, but
 
 90 EN" FLORIDA. 
 
 there is no lunar tide after you get above the influ- 
 ence of the inlet the rise and fall being governed 
 solely by the winds. 
 
 " Going southward from Mosquito Inlet you enter 
 Hillsborough Eiver ; which, through a winding 
 course between fifteen and sixteen miles long, brings 
 you into Mosquito Lagoon, twelve miles to the 
 southward of the inlet. Two miles and a half up 
 Hillsborough River is New Smyrna, a pretty little 
 settlement on the western bank among orange, fig 
 and banana trees. Nine feet may be taken to abreast 
 of the village; not less than five feet is found or 
 five miles beyond New Smyrna; but above that point 
 no more than three feet can be carried through to 
 Mosquito Lagoon; although there are deep holes 
 with as much as three and a half fathoms. The 
 channel is narrow and very crooked. 
 
 "Mosquito Lagoon is wide and shallow its width 
 ranging from one to two and a half miles. It has a 
 general course about S. E. by S.,and is between fif- 
 teen and sixteen miles long. A bar of three and a 
 half feet obstructs the entrance from Hillsborough 
 Eiver; but, that once crossed, a good channel, with 
 from five to ten feet takes you to within two miles 
 of its head. This terminates the inland navigation, 
 unless the vessel be able to pass through ' Haul-over 
 Canal.' There is but a foot and a half water in this 
 canal. 
 
 " Indian Eiver maybe entered from seaward by In- 
 dian Eiver Inlet, which cuts through the sandy strip 
 of coast-line about one hundred miles to the south-
 
 IK FLORIDA. 91 
 
 ward of Mosquito Inlet and sixty miles below Cape 
 Canaveral. I would not advise a small vessel to attempt 
 to navigate this coast; as it is very dangerous should 
 the wind come to the eastward (which it often does 
 in this vicinity), and there is no shelter except the 
 precarious anchorage under Canaveral. The bar at 
 Indian Kiver inlet has seven feet over it at low wa- 
 ter, but shifts constantly in both depth and position, 
 and can only be crossed in the smoothest weather. 
 Besides the bar there is an ' Inner Bulkhead ' so 
 called, over which there is but four feet. It is said 
 by the natives, however, that by taking what is called 
 the Blue Hole Passage, five feet to five and a half 
 may be taken safely into the river." 
 
 The fishing at St. Augustine, which is a quaint 
 old town, said to be the oldest in America, and well 
 worth a visit in itself, is better during the winter 
 months than any to be had north of it. Plenty of 
 boatmen can be hired who will pilot the stranger to 
 the best spots. Around here the foliage becomes 
 still more tropical. The frost will occasionally 
 penetrate, and the most famous oranges are to be 
 grown only still further South, on the shell ham- 
 macks of the Indian and Banana Kivers, where 
 single trees bear as many as six thousand of these 
 golden fruit each. But we were actually tired of 
 fishing, and looked 011 complacently with the pity- 
 ing superiority of accomplished success at the 
 patient anglers, trying their best to kill a few in- 
 offensive finny creatures off the bridge, across 
 the St. Sebastian River, or bringing triumphantly
 
 32 Iff- FLORIDA. 
 
 home in the native's "dug out,'' the proceeds of 
 a day's hard work on the bay. The Doctor 
 was especially indifferent, and excited universal 
 envy when he told of the wondrous sport we 
 had had during our two months of recreation. 
 While I do not for a moment intend to impugn his 
 absolute veracity, some of the adventures which he 
 related had passed from my memory or had grown 
 since I heard them last. He would make no more 
 violent sporting effort than repeating these tales, 
 and preferred to sit on a chair upon the plaza, re- 
 tailing them, with the encouragement of a sour 
 orange punch, or wander through the coquina built 
 Fort Marion, visit the old Cathedral, or roam the 
 narrow streets. We laid in a supply of native pre- 
 serves, sketched the graceful date palm, and never 
 ceased wondering at the odd and extravagant beauty 
 of the semi-equatorial foliage and plants. There is 
 interesting, although not very extensive sailing in 
 the harbor, and many varieties of bay snipe to be 
 killed. A yachting club, which will show every 
 courtesy to brethren from the North, has a boat 
 house on the shore. 
 
 The further one goes South the better the shoot- 
 ing and fishing become, and I would advise any 
 one, who feels as if it were impossible ever to get 
 enough of either, not to stop in the St. John's, or 
 short of St. Augustine. There he can spend several 
 weeks profitably, and should thence go on South to 
 Halifax Elver and New Smyrna, where he will think 
 nothing of catching a hundred sheepshead in a day.
 
 IN FLORIDA. 93 
 
 no tiny fellows either, but weighing from six to ten 
 pounds a piece, or half as many channel bass of 
 fifteen to twenty pounds each, together with as 
 many sharks thrown in as he has stomach or tackle 
 for. By the way, I forgot to mention that among 
 our outfit was a couple of shark hooks and a line of 
 a hundred fathoms, as thick as the little finger, all 
 of which did good but rather brutal service. Back 
 of New Smyrna, the woods are full of venison and 
 bear meat, turkeys, and other feathered game. The 
 best duck shooting is in the southern part of the 
 lagoon or river, but the bars and beaches everywhere 
 are alive with bay snipe, herons, cranes, pelicans, 
 and a thousand smaller birds. 
 
 But a truce to this everlasting repetition of sport, 
 which was growing monotonous even to Mr. Green's 
 insatiable sporting appetite, and turn to something 
 pleasanter. The royal lady of the house had resolved 
 to give us such a feast as we had not had before. 
 The supplies laid in at St. Augustine enabled her to 
 carry out her idea, but the selection of the day and 
 date for the event was a mystery. I supposed it 
 must have been to celebrate my birthday, which, it 
 is true, had come and gone six months before ; but 
 as it had not yet been kept, needed commemoration 
 as badly as though it had never taken place at all. 
 No matter what was the moving inducement, the 
 banquet was worthy of it. We men had been 
 smuggled out of the way while the preparations 
 were being made, so that, while we had a general 
 idea of the drift of things, we had no conception
 
 94 Itf FLORIDA. 
 
 of the gorgeousness of the result. It was not a 
 feast fit for a king merely, but a sufficient banquet 
 had all the gods been invited. There were raw 
 oysters, two kinds of fish, sheepshead boiled, and 
 channel bass baked, chicken soup, and turtle soup, 
 from turtle caught on the spot, roast wild turkey, 
 and boiled mutton, scalloped oysters, venison, and 
 wild ducks, bay snipe, potato salad, peas, tomatoes, 
 beans, and baked sweet potatoes, while for dessert 
 there was such an array of goodies, that the room 
 in my log book was in danger of running short, and 
 I could only record a few, such as fresh cake, straw- 
 berries, spiced figs, and all the preserves and spiced 
 fruits that the table would hold, closing with cheese 
 and coffee. The only wonder was, that after such 
 a dinner to which our appetites and our loyalty both 
 pressed us to do more than ample justice, anv of 
 the party survived. If you have doubts of our 
 state of minds and bodies, go on a three months' 
 cruise and wind up with such a dinner, and "you 
 will know how it is yourself." 
 
 Of all places on the eastern shore of Florida, 
 the Indian and Banana Eivers are the most delight- 
 ful and interesting. Here, when you are once in- 
 side the bar, which, as I have said, is a little peril- 
 ous, there is room and occupation for a winter. 
 The salt water fishing is mainly near the inlet, but 
 in the tributary streams is an unlimited supply of 
 the fresh water varieties. The sailing is splendid, 
 and the climate, except for its warmth, delicious. 
 By the time the reader peruses these pages, it is
 
 IN" FLORIDA. 95 
 
 probable that inland communication will have been 
 opened with the Indian River, either by the " Haul- 
 over/' which in the year 1882 was only twelve feet 
 wide and one foot and a half deep, or from the St. 
 John's, by the way of Lake Washington; and that 
 there will be finished another canal from Indian 
 Eivcr to Lake Worth and Biscayne Bay, making a 
 safe and easy passage round the keys to the Gulf 
 side. This was to have been done when we were 
 there, and if not yet finished, soon will be. 
 
 Then if the sportsman is not yet satiated, or if 
 he is suffering from consumption, and wishes to re- 
 gain his health, he can make the grandest trip in 
 the world, by either sending his yacht to Jackson- 
 ville, or to Cedar Keys, or buying one there, and 
 spending the entire winter in the exploration of the 
 southern part of Florida. As it is, the voyage from 
 the Indian Eiver is not difficult or dangerous. 
 Numerous keys or islands make a shelter from the 
 seas, and once on the G-ulf side, the climate, the 
 country, the water, everything is delightful. Storms 
 are rare, the Gulf is generally smooth, harbors are 
 numerous, and the shooting is unsurpassed by any 
 in the world. If the sportsman does not take his 
 own vessel, he can go by railroad directly to Cedar 
 Keys, and thence take what conveyance he prefers 
 farther south. At Cedar Keys small sail boats, 
 suitable to those shallow waters, can be hired, as well 
 as guides, if they are needed. To enjoy a visit to 
 Florida in its full scope and meaning, and to make 
 it an expedition never to be forgotten, make up a
 
 96 IK FLORIDA. 
 
 pleasant party, hire a sailing vessel, and her master 
 as pilot, and coast along from Cedar Keys in water 
 mostly not more than two feet deep, between forests 
 of primeval wildness, in company with countless 
 water-fowl and over unnumbered fish, taking toll 
 from turkey, bear, and alligator, as you go. Sail 
 around the Gulf shore and Cape Sable, and finally 
 up the eastern shore of Florida, into the Indian 
 Eiver. Eemain there till your heart is glutted with 
 sport, and your palate with fruit, and thence return 
 to the North by rail or boat. Such a trip makes a 
 date of delight in one's life. 
 
 On the Gulf side the most interesting spots are the 
 rivers which flow into the sea, the Caloosahatchee, 
 Crystal and Hamosassa, all of them full of fish and 
 game. Alligators, the sport of killing which is in- 
 deed more to be honored in the breach than in the 
 observance, are so abundant as to be almost trouble- 
 some. The only difficulty with Florida is that the 
 sport is excessive, and that any one except sporting 
 gourmands will get tired of it. Even Mr. Green, who, 
 as I have said, is almost insatiable, became surfeited, 
 the Doctor and myself being long before content. 
 The voyager, whether by sea or land, must bring cer- 
 tain books with him, such as will not so much help 
 him pass the time, as assist him in his researches. He 
 will find a thousand things to amuse and occupy his 
 hours, but Avill need information which he can not 
 obtain on the ground. The vast and quaint variety 
 of shells which he will pick up, the new and curious 
 birds and fish he will kill, but above all, the strange
 
 IK FLORIDA. 97 
 
 mass of tropical flowers, plants, and trees, which he 
 will meet at every foot of the route, require to appre- 
 ciate them not only all the books which have been 
 written specially on this portion of our country, but 
 a well selected assortment of popular botanical and 
 conchological works, and ichthyological also, if he 
 is not up in that subject. 
 
 There is no shooting and little fishing directly 
 around Cedar Keys, where the wayfarer doth very 
 much abound, but some twenty miles south Colonel 
 Wingate keeps a sportsman's hotel, and he can en- 
 sure the land traveller a good time, without separa- 
 tion from his family for an extended period. His 
 plaoe is at Gulf Hammock, and to reach it, the 
 sportsman leaves the cars at the station just short 
 of Cedar Keys. From his house parties are made 
 up to explore the waters further south with the aid 
 of boats and guides. I mention his place because 
 he is well known to many of my Northern readers. 
 
 I have spoken mostly of the coast shooting, be- 
 cause it was what we mainly had in view in our 
 trip, but it must not be imagined that it is the only 
 kind of sport to be had. We took no dogs, but 
 meeting a party of Northern sportsmen at Gaines- 
 ville, we tried the quail. The sport was magnifi- 
 cent, with a single drawback. There was no trouble 
 in killing seventy-five birds to three guns, and sev- 
 eral times the bag exceeded a hundred, once reach- 
 ing a hundred and six ; but the weather was so hot 
 that it did not seem like quail shooting, and the 
 true exhilaration of the sport, as we Northerners
 
 98 
 
 I1ST FLORIDA. 
 
 know it, was lost. Deer ore plenty everywhere, but 
 to hunt them to any advantage, you must put your- 
 self under the guidance of the native hunters. We 
 only tried it once, and then could use but a small 
 part of our venison on account of the heat of the 
 feather. Bears are occasionally shot ; we did not 
 see any, probably because we were not looking for 
 them, and if any one has the patience, he_can kil 
 wild turkeys. Good water-fowl shooting is also to 
 be had on the uplands in any of the ^numerable 
 lakes which dot Florida from one end to the other 
 if they are not too near civilization. A very capital 
 house was kept by a former employee of Delmonico 
 at a town called Waldo, where inland sport of all 
 kinds could be had in reasonable amounts. It seems 
 almost invidious to specify particular places as so 
 far as I could judge, there' was shooting and i 
 everywhere off the regular beaten track of tourists. 
 , "Doctor," remarked Mr. Green with a quiet sub- 
 dued intonation which long practice enabled me to 
 recognize as malice aforethought, "Do you know 
 what bird I prefer to eat?" 
 
 I should presume from your past actions, re 
 plied the learned gentleman thus addressed, '' 
 of all the birds, which swim, fly, or have feathers, 
 you give a decided preference to broiled duck. 
 
 -Especially," I interposed, in order to head off 
 the coming attack if possible, provided that the 
 duck is cooked over an open fire in the cabin when 
 the rest of the party are at breakfast." 
 
 < Broiled duck is good," Mr. Green responded, n:
 
 IN FLORIDA. 99 
 
 crushed, " if unreasonable people do not deprive it 
 of its natural flavor by complaining of the manner 
 in which it is cooked. But there is a better bird 
 than even a wild duck." 
 
 "Yes," said the doctor, "there's the woodcock, 
 but what is the use of exciting our minds, and ag- 
 gravating our palates by referring to abstractions, 
 which cannot be realized as there are no woodcock 
 in Florida?" 
 
 " There is a good bird in Florida, the very one I 
 refer to, and which could bo killed, if a person was 
 allowed to stop on hour or two and not be kept for- 
 ever on the move like the wandering Jew, "persisted 
 Mr Green, cocking back his chair on its hind legs, a 
 favorite position of his, although he had already re- 
 duced two of them to kindling wood by the operation. 
 
 "You don't mean bay snipe!" exclaimed the doc- 
 tor in a disgusted tone, "we have had enough of 
 them." 
 
 " He probably alludes to water- turkey," I observ- 
 ed quietly, "he has tasted every thing else." 
 
 " I don't mean water-turkey either, although for 
 all you can tell it may be a good bird to eat. I mean 
 turkey without the water." With that he brought 
 the front legs of his chair to their natural position 
 with a thud that shook the deck. 
 
 "Turkey," shouted the doctor with enthusiasm, 
 " just talk turkey to me, tell me where and when and 
 how. I would swim ashore, if there was a chicken 
 much more a turkey in sight, or the hut of a darkey, 
 who might have either to sell."
 
 100 IN FLORIDA. 
 
 " Well then suppose we go ashore and kill one/"' 
 remarked Seth with quiet complacency, as though 
 such a feat were the simplest everday occurrence cf 
 life. 
 
 That settled it. " Oh dear, I should so like a 
 piece of turkey" came from the cabin. " Yes, I am 
 so tired of fish," was was the chorussed approval, 
 and although I felt assured that, strangers as we 
 were to the country, and without a guide accustom- 
 ed to the work, there would be no chance of success, 
 I had to give in and come to anchor. 
 
 Mr. Green got out his rifle, and the doctor his 
 breech-loader, taking a dozen cartridges loaded with 
 buck- shot. Our head man Charley was to accom- 
 pany them, while I remained in charge of the yacht. 
 None of us knew by experience much of the habits of 
 turkeys, and as it was still early in the day it was 
 determined to start at once, and return again on the 
 following morning if it should be deemed ad visible. 
 
 " Now," said the doctor, "if we only had a tur- 
 key call, we would be sure to succeed." 
 
 " Can you use the call?" I inquired. 
 
 " Oh no," he answerd promptly, " but I dare say 
 Mr. Green can." 
 
 Seth said nothing when I looked at him for a re- 
 sponse, leaving me to imply what I pleased as to his 
 accomplishments. I had suddenly remembered 
 that I had one aboard among some old shooting 
 traps which had been thrown in together as a sort of 
 refuse addition. Being perfectly confident that 
 neither of the turkey hunters could use the " strange
 
 IJf FLORIDA. 101 
 
 device," it was with a malicious pleasure that I went 
 below, and after a short search found it. An odd- 
 looking affair it was, which I had once been able to 
 use, but time had utterly obliterated the recollection 
 of the way to manage it. At one end was a piece of 
 bone about four inches long with a hole through it, 
 and a larger mouthpiece of wood at the other. Blow- 
 ing through it had no effect whatever, as I had 
 previously found out, and the memory of the proper 
 labial pucker had passed from my mind and my lips. 
 I handed it calmly to the doctor without a word. 
 He held it in his hand regarding it with puzzled un- 
 certainty, evidently to make up his mind, which end 
 was to go in his mouth, till noticing the knob on the 
 smaller, he correctly concluded that that was the part 
 to blow through, and applied it to his lips. Then 
 he blew, at first mildly, producing no result other 
 than a gentle hissing of air; he increased the force, 
 the hissing was louder, but that was all, no sound 
 which by the most vigorous imagination could be 
 construed into the cluck of a gobbler issued. He 
 next tried to pucker up his lips like the trum- 
 peter breathing into his trumpet, but with worse 
 effect if possible than before. Dismayed at his fu- 
 tile efforts, he gazed critically into the end as though 
 some of "Wie machinery must have been lost, but 
 finding nothing to encourage such a supposition, gave 
 up the attempt and held it out to Mr. Green, who 
 had been watching the operation with interest. The 
 latter gentleman was not to be caught, and waving 
 it indifferently aside said with admirable assurance:
 
 102 1ST FLOEIDA. 
 
 " We won't need that, turkeys are too plenty, all 
 we shall have to do will be to keep our eyes open to 
 kill as many as we want. " 
 
 In that happy state of confidence they departed. 
 We were anchored some little distance from the shore 
 on account of the shallowness of the water, but I 
 thought I heard several shots and wondered what 
 they had found to fire at, as the probability of their 
 killing a turkey was too slight to be worth consider- 
 ing. Early in the afternoon they returned with an 
 air of curious self gratulation in their behavior, the 
 manner of persons who had done an act on which 
 they plumed themselves, but which would bear a 
 good deal of concealment. This was noticeable even 
 before they had reached the yacht, and prepared me 
 in a measure for what followed the production of 
 a fine fat gobbler from the stern of the boat. Char- 
 ley handed it up to me with an air of deprecation 
 quite in contrast to the truculence with which Seth 
 climbed on deck and exclaimed : 
 
 " There, what did I tell you, are you satisfied 
 now ? Where would the supplies come from to keep 
 us alive, except for me. You would have had us 
 down to hard tack and salt junk long ago, if it 
 hadn't been for the fish and birds I have had to kill." 
 Have you anything to say against that? " 
 
 I was examining the turkey critically. I had 
 heard of turkey pens, and suspected that this came 
 from one of them, but did not see how to prove the 
 fact. Its head had been shot nearly off. 
 
 " That is where the ball hit him, and I call it a
 
 IK FLOEIDA. 103 
 
 pretty good shot at twenty rods," continued Mr. 
 Green, referring to the wounded spot. 
 
 "Was he as far off as that?" I inquired, as I 
 handed him over to be picked. I was not familiar 
 enough with a trapped turkey to detect the deceit if 
 there was any, and Seth, seeing my inability, made 
 the most of it. 
 
 " What is to be our reward for the hard work we 
 have been doing ? I tell you it is no easy thing to 
 stalk a turkey, and if any other of the party had 
 done as much, I wouldn't grudge them the nicest 
 sour orange punch that could be made." 
 
 Turkeys are caught in parts of the country by a 
 curious trap or pen, and I had heard that such a pen 
 was used in Florida. It is built of logs on the four 
 sides and over the top, a hole being left at one side 
 just large enough to allow the bird to enter in a 
 stooping posture. Corn is strewed on the ground 
 leading to this hole, and scattered about so as to at- 
 tract attention, and the way the trap works is this: 
 the turkey finds the food and follows it, picking 
 up grain after grain, keeping his head bent down, 
 and in that posture enters the pen without trouble. 
 There he remains without a suspicion of wrong till 
 he has consumed all the corn. After the food so 
 kindly supplied is gone, he begins to think of mov- 
 ing on, when to his surprise he discovers that man 
 rarely does any favor without expecting a return, no 
 less in this case than the toothsome body of the re- 
 cipient. The turkey never stoops, even to save his life, 
 he looks upward and not downward, he will not bow
 
 104 IN FLORIDA. 
 
 his royal head to escape by the road through which 
 he entered. Becoming alarmed he springs up, dash- 
 ing himself against the logs, he thrusts his head be- 
 tween the crevices and tries to fly through the roof 
 by main force, but in vain, the pen is too strong, 
 and the only method of escape which is open he 
 will not condescend to take. 
 
 The owner of such a pen does not visit it regularly, 
 and the turkeys are often shut up in it for days, 
 frequently falling a prey to wild cats that find them 
 before their lawful proprietor comes to claim them. 
 My unholy suspicions were that the doctor, the Su- 
 perintendent of the New York Fishery Commission, 
 and the captain of the yacht Heartsease had acci- 
 dentally found such a pen, and acted the part of the 
 wild cat. For although I could see nothing suspic- 
 ious about the bird, it was strange that persons who 
 had stalked a wild turkey through a dense Southern 
 forest hardly seemed to be tired, and wished to sit 
 up half the night to smoke and talk. Still the bird 
 proved to be delicious, and the entire party were 
 grateful for him whether honestly obtained or not, 
 so little does hunger weigh questions of morality. 
 
 Two days after the turkey adventure, when we 
 were sailing along before a mild breeze, Mr. Green 
 steering, the doctor smoking, and the rest of us read- 
 ing, Charley suddenly called out from forward where 
 he was standing: 
 
 (i Look at that large bird flying over the woods to 
 the west." 
 
 We all looked in the direction indicated, and saw
 
 Itf FLORIDA. 105 
 
 an immense bird moving grandly and steadily, with 
 slowly beating wings and extended neck and legs. 
 
 "What an enormous creature/' exclaimed one of 
 the ladies. 
 
 " It must be a rock," chimed in the o'ther. 
 
 " Here take the stick, while I get the glass," 
 saying which, Mr. Green let go of the tiller, and 
 plunged into the cabin to reappear with the binoc- 
 ular, which he fixed on the wondrous bird. 
 
 " What do you make out of him?" inquired the 
 doctor, who had forgotten his pipe in the excite- 
 ment till it had gone out. 
 
 " It is a crane," replied Seth, " but the largest one 
 ever I saw. Charley," he asked our captain, " did 
 you ever see such a crane as that before? " 
 
 * No, I never did," was the answer. " It must 
 be something of the sort however, from the way it 
 flies and holds its legs." 
 
 " I wonder whether it can be the whooping crane?" 
 I inquired, " I have heard that they are occasional- 
 ly seen on the coast, although supposed to be more 
 numerous in the interior." 
 
 "Oh can't you shoot it, what feathers it must 
 have for hats." The origin of this remark was ob- 
 vious. 
 
 " If you want feathers a yard long! Why it is 
 nearly as large as an ostrich." 
 
 " Well, don't we use ostrich feathers ? Oh do 
 shoot it, I want some long white feathers. " 
 
 " It is a little too far off," I replied. 
 
 "How far?" was the persistent inquiry.
 
 106 IN FLORIDA. 
 
 " I should say about a mile." 
 
 " That is the way always," was the disgusted re- 
 sponse, " you pretend to be great sportsmen, but you 
 say every bird we meet is too far off. If I knew 
 how to shoot, I wouldn't be making excuses all the 
 time. If we ever come to Florida again, I hope we 
 will have somebody with us who can hit his mark, 
 and not pretend that every bird is too far off." 
 
 At this the fair speaker retired below just as the 
 crane disappeared over the distant trees. 
 
 It was several days after this occurrence that we 
 saw what we took to be another whooping crane 
 standing at the edge of the water, not far from some 
 bushes. He was quite white, and towered up against a 
 back ground of grass and sand-bar till his head seem- 
 ed to come in line with the trees beyond, and his body 
 to be as tall as that of a man. The yacht was slow- 
 ly approaching him by the aid of a light breeze, and 
 Mr. Green was growing more excited the nearer we 
 came. The crane stood motionless, not alarmed at 
 the bigger bird, which was gradually swooping down 
 upon him, and apparently quite tame. 
 
 Mr. Green had redeemed his reputation with the 
 rifle of late, my sarcasm about the Limpkin, and 
 some ironical allusions from the doctor Lad improv- 
 ed his aim, so that we no longer smiled incredulously 
 when he brought out his rifle. In fact he was a 
 splendid shot, as his innumerable prizes taken at 
 tournaments abundantly proved, but the motion of 
 the yacht had at first unsettled his aim. There was 
 not more than half a mile between us and the bird,
 
 IN FLOEIDA. 109 
 
 which seemed to loom up higher and higher as we 
 approached. 
 
 "Hadn't we better make sure of him," asked 
 Seth anxiously," we may never have such another 
 chance. You tell me these cranes are very scarce!" 
 
 "Perhaps we had," I answered," what do you 
 think we had better do ? " 
 
 " By all means," interrupted the doctor, who was 
 roused out of his usual equanimity, "let us make 
 every effort to kill him as a specimen. They are 
 exceedingly rare." 
 
 " If you lay to," replied Seth, " and let Charley 
 row me ashore, I will get behind those bushes, and 
 think I can crawl within range of him." 
 
 " If you are willing to take the trouble on the 
 chances," I answered. " Do, Mr. Green," begged 
 the ladies both together, their hopes of such feath- 
 ers as had never yet graced bonnet quite carrying 
 them into enthusiasm. 
 
 Seth did not consider the labor of crawling 
 through the matted dense undergrowth in the hot 
 sun, nor the danger of snakes in the long grass, all 
 that he saw was the immense bird and all that he 
 wanted was to kill it. In a moment he and Charley 
 were off in the boat, and pulling for the shore. 
 Heartsease was luffed up into the wind, and lay 
 motionless on the scarcely ruffled water, contrasting 
 by its apparent indifference with the eager excite- 
 ment of the party on board. We watched the small 
 boat till it reached the bank, and was hastily con- 
 cealed by Charley, while Mr. Green disappeared im-
 
 110 IN FLORIDA. 
 
 mediately in the bushes. Then we could see noth- 
 ing further except the big bird, which had not been 
 alarmed by the preliminaries, and which there was 
 now every probability would become our prize. The 
 ladies were in their hearts already priding them- 
 selves on the loves of bonnets to which his gorgeous 
 attire was to contribute, the doctor had already dis- 
 sected and stuffed him in imagination, and I was 
 wondering whether he was good to eat. We waited 
 till our patience was more than exhausted. Crawl- 
 ing through the tangled mass of a Southern swamp is 
 no easy matter, and wo could do nothing but watch 
 the imposing bird standing there, un terrified, and as 
 still as though he were a graven image, instead of 
 being a thing of beauty and vitality. 
 
 Suddenly he gave a great leap into the air, and 
 then fell upon the sand in death throes which had 
 almost ceased before the report of the discharged 
 rifle came booming over the water. In a moment 
 the deceitful calm of the previous moment passed 
 away, we hauled aft our sheets, and swinging round 
 her head, got Heartsease under way. Charley shoved 
 out the dinkey which he had concealed in the 
 bushes, and in another minute Mr. Green pushed his 
 way through the underbrush to the side of his 
 magnificent victim. When our boatman joined him, 
 the two stood for some time gazing at and handling 
 the crane, while we waited impatiently for their 
 return. 
 
 At last they threw the game, it seemed to us 
 irreverently, into the bottom of the dinkey, and
 
 Itf FLORIDA. Ill 
 
 pushed off. We awaited their approach with eager- 
 ness, arising from the fact that none of us had ever 
 seen the American whooping crane, and were proud 
 of being the participants in the capture of one. 
 The two fortunate sportsmen did not hurry them- 
 selves to gratify our desires, but appeared exceed- 
 ingly at their ease, and it was not till they had nearly 
 arrived that we discovered the cause of their indiffer- 
 ence by perceiving in the boat not a whooping crane 
 at all, but an ordinary white heron. The clearness 
 of the atmosphere, the bright rays of the sun, or the 
 nature of the background had tended to mislead us 
 and had added immensely to the stature of the 
 bird. The ladies retired to the cabin hatless, so to 
 speak, the doctor was for throwing the deceiver over- 
 board instead of skinning him, and to this day I am 
 uncertain as to the taste of the great American 
 whooping crane. 
 
 The Indian Eiver is so shallow in places, that the 
 direction on the chart of Currituck Sound could be 
 applied to it: " Only three feet of water can be car- 
 ried, and that with difficulty." In other parts it is 
 deeper; it varies in width from one mile to three, 
 and as a general rule where it is narrow, it is deep, 
 and where it is wide, it is shallow. Although it 
 approaches nearly to Mosquito Lagoon, it does not 
 join the latter unfortunately, and a canal has been 
 cut called the Haul-over, of which I have already 
 spoken. In the Haul-over, which is only fourteen 
 feet jvide, there is but one foot and a half of water, 
 and for some distance below not much more than
 
 112 IN" FLORIDA. 
 
 two. There are many rivers emptying into the 
 Indian River on the west or shore side ; these are 
 generally deep and full of fish, and well repay the 
 explorer. The only inlets are in the southern end, 
 Jupiter Inlet at the lowest extremity, and Indian 
 River Inlet a short distance above. 
 
 Banana River, which is rather a branch of Indian 
 River than a distinct stream, is in places -broader 
 and deeper ; it connects with the main river at its 
 southern extremity, and by Banana Creek at the 
 northerly end. The creek of the name is both nar- 
 row and shallow, and can only be used by small craft. 
 There is most interesting yachting in the Halifax 
 and Hillsborough, north and south of New Smyrna, 
 which is situated on the Hillsborough, about three 
 miles from Mosquito Inlet, as well as in Mosquito 
 Lagoon, which is reached through a narrow and 
 tortuous channel among innumerable islands from 
 the Hillsborough. So also do the Indian and Banana 
 rivers furnish safe and delightful cruising grounds, 
 with plenty of harbors or shelter for even small open 
 vessels, the only danger being that of running on 
 oyster shoals. 
 
 A narrow strip of sand separates Indian River from 
 the ocean, and the yachtsman can occasionally, by 
 climbing into the rigging, see the blue waves of the 
 Atlantic. On this bar the bay-birds often collect 
 in large flocks, and may be killed in numbers more 
 than needed. They are of the same kinds which 
 have already been described, and are found in the 
 summer at the North. Bear are occasionally met
 
 IN FLOEIDA. 113 
 
 with, and now and then a wild-cat; deer are more 
 plentjybut the sportsman will be fortunate if he 
 finds any of these unless he goes especially after 
 them. 
 
 A yacht-club has been established at New Smyrna, 
 with headquarters in Indian River, where the mem- 
 bers expect to do a large part of their yachting. An 
 excellent choice was made at the first election of 
 officers, and its prospects for introducing the sport 
 into the waters of Florida are promising. The presi- 
 dent is Mr. Herman Oelrichs, and the vice president 
 Mr. Girard Stuyvesant, both of New York. 
 
 In extended yachting trips there is often trouble 
 in getting fresh water, a difficulty which is increased 
 at the South, where the land is low, and there are 
 none of what at the North would be called springs; 
 the ice-cold jets of water bubbling from the ground. 
 It is not generally known that sand is so effectual a 
 filter, that drinkable water can be obtained by dig- 
 ging down into it almost anywhere. To take ad- 
 vantage of this, and for many other purposes, it is 
 advisable to carry a spade on board. Water so ob- 
 tained may be a little brackish, but by boiling it will 
 be made, if not quite palatable, at least healthy. 
 Rain falling on the deck is apt to take up portions 
 of the paint, infinitesimally small, perhaps, but suf- 
 ficient to give an unpleasant and unhealthy taste. 
 On the western keys a bush with a peculiar rich 
 leaf, easily distinguishable by those who have once 
 seen it, often grows where water is to be found. 
 
 It would be easy to go on recounting the attrac-
 
 114 IN PLOEIDA. 
 
 tions of Florida indefinitely; there is always some- 
 thing more to say, a fresh point of interest to speak 
 of, additional beauties to describe, other and still 
 other reasons for visiting this strange and delightful 
 country. There is but one way in which even a slight 
 appreciation of the charms of Florida can be ob- 
 tained; and that is, to go there as often and stay 
 there as long as possible. For health, for recreation, 
 for sport, no place in the world can be compared 
 with it. A vast portion, that of the Everglades, the 
 "Grassy Water" of the native Seminoles, has never 
 been explored, and there are thousands of rivers, 
 lakes, and ponds which have rarely been disturbed 
 by the presence of a white man, and which would 
 amply reward the adventurous spirit who would ex- 
 plore them. 
 
 When we first arrived in Florida, the flowers, 
 which its name promised us, were not to be seen. 
 Deceived by the temperature and a thermometer 
 that recorded rarely less than eighty degrees, we 
 failed to recognize the season of the year, or recall 
 the truism that, as all nature must have its spring, 
 it must also have its winter. The climate and the 
 foliage were as summer-like as we had ever seen 
 them. The grand orange trees, with their brilliant 
 shining green, flecked with spots of golden yellow, 
 were the most gorgeous sight that our eyes had ever 
 beheld in field or forest. The moss-covered forest' 
 evergreens, although turned slightly brown, were 
 still magnificent in their richness of foliage. There 
 were bare limbs here and there of deciduous trees,
 
 IK FLOEIDA. 115 
 
 but their nakedness was nearly covered by the un- 
 fading leaves of their neighbors. The shrubs and 
 undergrowth were as bright in hue, seemingly, to 
 our uneducated eyes as possible. But by the time 
 we were leaving, even we could notice a decided 
 change. The green had put on a deeper verdancy, 
 the brown had disappeared, and suddenly there 
 sprang into life a myriad of flowers. The yellow 
 jessamine covered the swamps and filled them with 
 a mass of perfume as well as an array of loveliness. 
 Scarlet lobelias thrust their bright heads boldly 
 from the water-side, along with white lilies and 
 arrow-heads, and on the higher grounds hundreds 
 of wild flowers, many of which we could not name, 
 charmed us with their beauty. The magnificent 
 magnolia was bursting into bud. As the orange 
 trees were being denuded of their ripe fruit, the tiny 
 sweet smelling blossoms made their appearance, till 
 the branches bore at one and the same time, buds, 
 flowers, and green and ripe fruit. The inland lakes 
 and ponds were covered with pond lilies, which are 
 called " bonnets" by the natives, and made a deli- 
 cious picture with the broad green leaves and the 
 bright yellow flowers. Language fails in describing 
 the exquisite beauty of the verdure of the country. 
 "We found Florida laden with fruit ; we left it cov- 
 ered with flowers.
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 CURRITUCK MARSHES. 
 
 Duck shooting has held its own better than any 
 other kind of sport in the States east of the Missis- 
 sippi. Ruffed grouse have almost disappeared, wood- 
 cock have grown scarcer and scarcer, English-snipe 
 visit us less abundantly, while the bay-birds have 
 nearly ceased to be in sections where they were once 
 overwhelmingly abundant, but it is possible still, on 
 Lake Erie, along the coast, and at many inland places 
 to make a fair, if not, as often happens, an ex- 
 cellent bag, of ducks. But the best place, one Avhere 
 the birds seem to exist in their original abundance, 
 and where magnificent shooting is still to be had, is 
 on the eastern shore of North-Carolina. Of this 
 favored locality Currituck is the most famous. So 
 celebrated is this county that the entire marshes, 
 the duck-haunted lowlands, have been purchased, 
 and to-day there is absolutely no free shooting to be 
 had. A stranger is as thoroughly debarred as if he 
 were in the most barren portion of our land. ISTo 
 one is allowed to shoot from a battery unless he is a 
 native, and to get a chance to go out at all after the 
 innumerable flocks of wild-fowl that temptingly 
 cover the water, the visitor must belong to one of 
 the numerous sporting clubs which have so wisely 
 and assiduously secured all the shooting grounds, and
 
 CURKITUCK MAESHES. 117 
 
 most of which are so particular that they exclude in- 
 vited guests. 
 
 But if you are one of the favored shareholders you 
 can have a glorious time. Fifty ducks a day to each 
 gun is no unusual average, and while a hundred 
 is a large bag, a hundred and fifty is nothing uncom- 
 mon, and as many as two hundred and fifty have 
 been killed by a sportsman and his gunner in a single 
 day. Moreover the birds are of the best possible 
 kind ; there are canvas-backs in the open water, red- 
 heads in still greater abundance, and broad-bills or 
 blue-bills so plenty that they are rarely shot at, 
 while in the pond holes black-ducks, mallards, and 
 widgeons abound. These are all well-fed and fat, 
 and such a thing as a poor duck is iinknown. The 
 law wisely forbids shooting before sunrise or after 
 sunset, and the club members are wise enough to 
 keep the law, knowing as they do that one gun fired 
 after sunset is more injurious than a dozen during 
 the day, so that the ducks do not seem to diminish 
 but rather to increase and multiply, and as fine a day's 
 sport has been had by the members of the club dur- 
 ing the past few years as at any time in the history 
 of the country. A result partly due to breech-load- 
 ers perhaps, while from a battery it is nothing un- 
 usual to kill a hundred brace of red-heads or canvas- 
 backs, and some times twice as many. 
 
 This favored spot is, as it ought to be, of no easy 
 access. The sportsmen must first go to Norfolk and 
 thence take either the little steamboat Cygnet, en- 
 deared to so many of us by the memory of pleasant
 
 118 CURRITUCK MARSHES. 
 
 excursions in the past, or travel by a new railroad 
 just finished which passes twenty miles from the 
 traveller's destination, a place known from the name 
 of the enterprising widow lady who formerly owned 
 it, as Van Slyck's Landing. By boat the entire 
 day is spent in the journey, and by rail it is not 
 much shorter, but the boat arrives so late that it is 
 not always possible to make the trip across from the 
 landing to the club house the same night. Opposite 
 Van Slyck's are the two most famous and successful 
 sporting clubs in that section of the United States, 
 the Currituck and the Palmer's Island clubs. They 
 own or control immense tracts of land, and below 
 them to the southward the bay widens out so that 
 there is no chance to kill ducks to advantage. 
 There are a few good stands at Kitty Hawk Bay, 
 thirty miles further south, and at the lower end 
 of Eoanoke Island Eaft ducks can be shot from 
 batteries. Then again along the eastern shore of 
 Pamlico Sound, at Hatteras and Ocracoke inlets and 
 in the western part of Core Sound, to the south of 
 Barker's Island, there is good duck, and in its season 
 brant shooting, but these places can only be reached 
 by the fortunate sportsman who has his own private 
 conveyance. Therefore it may practically be said 
 that the Palmer Island marshes are the ultima tliule 
 of duck shooting. 
 
 As a general thing, there is attached to every 
 sporting club some old experienced gunner full of 
 wild-fowl lore and quaint and curious phrases, who 
 is a mine of interesting information to him who will
 
 CURKITUCK MARSHES. 119 
 
 explore the vein. Such a one belonged to the Pal- 
 mer Island club, in the person of William S. Foster, 
 a resident of Long Island, who had followed Shinne- 
 cock Bay for many years, knew the ways and habits 
 of the birds as well as if he were one of them, and 
 was as fond of shooting as the most inveterate 
 sportsman. Honest to a farthing, faithful, anxious 
 to give the person he was with the best sport he 
 could, he was ready to take any amount of trouble, 
 endure any labor for a good day among the ducks, 
 the members of the club looked on him, rather as a 
 friend than a paid employee. "Many is the hour I 
 have spent with him on the Currituck marshes, 
 many a day of splendid shooting have I had, many 
 the big bag have I made with his aid. One of his 
 peculiarities was that he never was in a hurry. No 
 matter how thick the birds were, how easy it seemed 
 to choose a point, he would stand quietly in the bow 
 of the boat with the sea-glass in his hand scanning 
 the movements of the flocks and deliberately select- 
 ing the best place. I would often grow impatient 
 and fear he was losing valuable time, but the result 
 rarely failed to justify his judgment and vindicate 
 his deliberation. 
 
 The first and most important object, as he explain- 
 ed it under such circumstances, was to so arrange 
 the stools that the ducks would " come right," that 
 is would approach without fear and would offer the 
 sportsman a fair shot. This is a matter of the great- 
 est moment and is not understood by men who con- 
 sider themselves expert wild-fowlers. First, there
 
 120 CUKEITUCK MARSHES. 
 
 is the question of the wind to take note of, then the 
 position of the sun, next the cover, and last, but by 
 no means least, the nature of the species of ducks 
 that are flying. It will not do to string out the de- 
 coys dead to lee- ward of a point as is so often seen, 
 except perhaps when canvas-backs and red-heads are 
 alone expected, mallards, sprigtails, and especially 
 the wary black-duck will never or rarely approach a 
 point. If a point, with the wind blowing directly 
 off from it has to be chosen, it is better to stretch 
 the decoys around to one side of it so that the wind 
 " will catch tho birds under the wing" as he expressed 
 it and swing them in farther than they expected. 
 Points projecting far out into the open water are 
 the favorites of tyro gunners, but they are especially 
 unsuited for any of the marsh ducks, the black- 
 ducks, mallards, sprigtails, and even the widgeons, 
 all of which give a wide berth to such spots, espe- 
 cially after they have been shot at a few times, and 
 most of which prefer to alight close under the lee 
 of a bank, in the "slick" as it is called. 
 
 There are-two great divisions of ducks, the deep 
 water, diving or raft ducks, and the shoal water or 
 marsh ducks, which reach down for their food and 
 can never feed in water more than two feet deep. 
 The habits of these two varieties are remarkably dis- 
 similar. The open-water birds, fearless of ambush, 
 are less timid than their pond-loving brethren, who 
 dread an enemy in every tuft of grass or bunch of 
 reeds, when canvas-backs once makeup their minds 
 to come to the stools, they come straight on regard-
 
 CUEKITUCK MAKSHES. 121 
 
 loss of deficienccs in the gunner's blind, and very fre- 
 quently pass completely over the stools. On the 
 other hand, a black-duck in approaching the stand 
 is a model of caution, he is all eyes and ears, the 
 slightest movement by the sportsman, the least evi- 
 dence of danger will arouse his suspicions, and he will 
 veer suddenly off. Black-ducks and mallards rarely 
 cross the stools to alight at the head of them, but if 
 they reach them at all, drop in at the lower end, or 
 more often stop short and alight at a distance just 
 tantalizingly out of shot, where they remain to lure 
 off every fresh arrival unless they are driven away. 
 Their noses are especially keen, and care must be 
 taken to so arrange the stand that the wind will not 
 carry the scent of the gunner across the water to the 
 lee-ward of the decoys, and the birds get it before 
 they reach them. If they come in contact with such 
 a warning they jump into the air as if they had been 
 shot at, and flee with all the speed that terror can 
 lend to their usually vigorous wings. It is desirable 
 to set the stools under the lee of a bank of reeds or 
 rushes, for none of this class of ducks likes the open 
 water, and the most convenient plan is to place the 
 stools to one side of the stand, quartering as it were 
 across the wind, so that even if the birds alight be- 
 fore actually reaching them, they may be within 
 gun-shot. 
 
 The location of the stand is most important. I 
 remember once when I was shooting from what is 
 known in the club as "Kidder's Point," that I was 
 particularly impressed with this fact. The day had
 
 122 CURRITUCK MARSHES. 
 
 been dull and rather quiet, with but a few birds stir- 
 ring all through the morning ; a haze lay upon the 
 marshes, not dense enough to prevent the ducks fly- 
 ing if they had been so minded, which they did not 
 seem to be, the wind scarcely stirred the reeds or 
 rippled the surface of the bay, which was spread out 
 before me. I was making a poor bag and hardly ex- 
 pected to do better, when about midday there came 
 a change over the spirit of the earth and air, the 
 clouds began to condense, the wind commenced to 
 blow, the air became rapidly colder, a thin steak of 
 gray faintly marked the sky in the nothwest, while 
 in the south the clouds grew blacker and denser. 
 Then the rain fell in spits and flurries viciously. 
 The atmosphere intimated a decided change in the 
 weather, which the ducks were the first to recognize 
 and regulate their proceedings by. Evidently avast 
 mass of widgeons were bedded to the lee-ward of us. 
 They commenced to fly not in their individual capac- 
 ity, but as the part of a great movement, as if sud- 
 denly they had made up their minds all to go. In 
 whisps of threes, fours, tens, twenties, in large flocks, 
 or solitary and alone, they came heading towards me 
 directly across the marsh and visible for miles. 
 Then it was that I learned that I was not in exactly 
 the right place, that the birds for some reason best 
 known to themselves did not care to cross that spot 
 'in their migration. Most of them, especially the 
 largest flocks, passed outside of me and just beyond 
 the range, of my gun. I was in the wrong place, I 
 knew it, but I had no time to move, the ducks
 
 CUKRITUCK MARSHES. 125 
 
 were flying too fast and too many of them came with- 
 in range as it was for me to lose the time necessary 
 for a change. The rain that was falling, although 
 not heavy, interfered, and would have wet our guns 
 and clothes which were pretty well protected so long 
 as we remained still. So we stayed where we were, 
 and as it was the sport was splendid. The entire 
 mass of widgeons had determined to change their 
 feeding grounds, and that at once, there was no mo- 
 ment when some of them were not visible in the air, 
 they came from one quarter and flew in one direc- 
 tion. I had learned to whistle for widgeon as well 
 as a professional, and did my best with the aid of 
 William Foster to inveigle them within range. Very 
 often we were succsssf ul, and it was an afternoon of 
 excitement. Not a minute passed that we did not 
 have the prospect of a shot, and although the 
 larger flocks mostly kept on their course outside 
 of us, the smaller whisps and the single ones came 
 in freely. 
 
 l< Why is it that the birds seem to be all moving 
 at once ?" I asked of William during the first mo- 
 ment of partial leisure that we had, "and why are 
 they all going in the same direction ?" 
 
 " It is a question of food with them," he replied, 
 "as is the case with most other animals. Widgeon 
 can only get their food by reaching down for it, so 
 they must keep where the water is not over their 
 heads ; that is so that they can touch bottom with 
 their bills by tipping up, as you have of ten seen tame 
 ducks do. Now in these shallow marshes a change
 
 126 CTTRRITUCK MARSHES. 
 
 of wind means a change of depth of water, it is shal- 
 lower to windward, the water being piled up to lee- 
 ward and the ducks, knowing this, fly against the 
 wind, all the shoal feeding birds do so. The 
 canvas-backs, red-heads, and broad-bills make little 
 account of the wind." 
 
 " But," I answered, " this wind cannot as yet have 
 affected the depth of water." 
 
 "No, but the birds know that it soon will, and 
 they are getting ready for to-morrow. There will 
 probably be a greater change than we expect, wild 
 animals know much more about the weather than 
 man can ever learn, they have a sort of instinct that 
 is given to them for their protection. I have always 
 observed that the ducks sought the windward side 
 of the marshes. If the wind is blowing from the 
 south, I make it a rule to go to the southward to 
 choose a stand, if from the west I look through the 
 western marshes and so on. Of course I am not al- 
 ways right." 
 
 "No," I interrupted him to remark, "but we have 
 observed that the member who goes out with you 
 
 I 
 
 generally brings in the most birds, so the results 
 tend to demonstrate the theory." 
 
 "Well, I have studied these marshes as thor- 
 oughly as I could ; there is not a tree that I have not 
 climbed, nor an island that I have not explored." 
 
 "Can you see much from the trees when you do 
 climb them ?" I asked. 
 
 "Yes. A little elevation will enable you to see 
 over the entire marsh, and many a pond hole have I
 
 CUBRITUCK MARSHES. 127 
 
 found in that way that is not known to most of the 
 gunners, and not always to the natives." 
 
 "Keep still," I remarked at this point of our con- 
 versation, "there comes a magnificent flock of ducks, 
 if they would only turn this way what a shot they 
 would give us. " 
 
 We were silent except for whistling, which we 
 did with the finest touches and the utmost skill. 
 The flock, spread out against the distant sky in an 
 angle-pointed line, was headed directly for our hid- 
 ing place. We had crouched down on their first ap- 
 pearance, and grasping our guns and watched them, 
 waiting with increasing impatience and anxiety. 
 Nearer and nearer they came, over the distant marsh 
 undisturbed hy any other gunner, and unattracted 
 by other decoys until they were directly in front of 
 us and not more than three hundred yards distant. 
 It was a moment of intense excitement, for if we 
 could once get our four barrels into those serried 
 ranks, there was no telling how many we might not 
 kill. 
 
 On they came still nearer, we whistled more 
 softly and they answered with undiminished confi- 
 dence. Now they were over the meadow just beyond 
 our stools, a few minutes more of the same course 
 and they would be in our power. But alas, just as they 
 struck the open water they deflected their course a 
 little, not much, but enough to carry them beyond 
 fair reach of our guns, so that when we fired we were 
 only rewarded with three birds that plunged from 
 the flock headlong into the water. As they were
 
 128 Ct'JRfilTUCK MARSHES. 
 
 being retrieved by our four legged companion, Wil- 
 liam sagely remarked: 
 
 " I have observed that generally there is some 
 misfortune connected with what would make the 
 finest shots, and that at such times something is sure 
 to go wrong ; either the birds do not come in right, 
 or a twig or reed gets in front of you, the gun misses 
 fire, or something else happens, so that the best 
 chances usually prove the worst." 
 
 " There is an awful deal in luck," I replied, " after 
 all is said, Napoleon's star was not an imaginary 
 planet by any means. I never was a lucky sports- 
 man, and have had to earn my game by the sweat of 
 my brow." 
 
 "Did you ever know a sportsman who would ad- 
 mit that he was lucky ?" inquired William, calmly. 
 
 "I can't say that I ever did ; but if you will keep 
 still and not fluster me with unnecessary generaliza- 
 tions, I will kill that pair of widgeons that are com- 
 ing over the marsh, luck or no luck." 
 
 After uttering that boast, I had to make my words 
 good, and though I detected a twinkle in my com- 
 panion's eye, as if he would not mind should I hap- 
 pen to miss j nst that once, I took care to aim straight, 
 not the sort of excessive care that invariably results 
 in a miss, but the rapid and confident deliberation 
 that first holds the gun right and then pulls it off 
 when it is right, without waiting until it gets wrong. 
 
 "Good," said William, sotto voce, in his quiet way, 
 as the two ducks, doubled up by the full charge of 
 shot came down splash into the mud, close to our
 
 CURRITUCK MARSHES. 129 
 
 stand, "I have seen a good many misses when a 
 man was most sure of hitting ; I hardly expected 
 that you would kill them both so neatly. " 
 
 The sport kept up. It is useless to describe each 
 individual shot that we made. There is endless 
 variety in every one that is fired, for no two birds 
 come to the decoys precisely alike. There are never 
 the same conditions of wind, sun, position, readiness, 
 and what not, so that each is more or less of a sur- 
 prise. These the sportsman enjoys at the time, 
 they constitute the great charm of shooting; but 
 they would tire in the repetition in the cold blood 
 of white paper and black ink. It is enough that we 
 had a magnificent day's sport; "magnificent" is 
 not hyperbolical; we had sport that will be a memory 
 through life, and until the age-weakened arms can 
 no longer wield the faithful fowling piece, nor the 
 time-dimmed eyes note the birds approach. Our 
 store of game lay in a pile uncounted ; we knew there 
 was a goodly number, and when at last the tired sun 
 had performed his allotted task and gone to bed, we 
 were not surprised to add up nearly a hundred of 
 what is one of the finest of all the ducks, the hand- 
 some little widgeon. Few of our gunners, even the 
 oldest of them, know that there was a time when 
 the widgeon was valued more highly than the canvas- 
 back, when in fact in firing a sitting shot the market 
 gunner would "shew" the latter out of the way, in 
 order that he might have a better chance at the for- 
 mer. Had we been in exactly the right spot, there 
 is no doubt that I would then have reached the bag
 
 130 CURRITUCK MARSHES. 
 
 of two hundred, which it has been the ambition of 
 my life to attain. 
 
 On another occasion I had the same misfortune, 
 although from a different cause. I was with Jesse 
 that time, Jesse who, or Jesse what, I cannot tell. 
 So faithful and trustworthy a fellow must have an- 
 other name, a full name ; but often as I have availed 
 m} r self of his care in the marshes of Currituck, I am 
 ashamed to confess that I have forgotten it. Every 
 one calls him simply "Jesse," out of kindly feeling 
 no doubt, for a better fellow never set out a stand of 
 decoys ; so as simply Jesse he must go down to the 
 immortality that this book will give him. He is 
 devoted- to the pleasure of his employer, and never 
 more delighted than when the latter brings home a 
 fine bag of birds ; but he is not quite so skillful as 
 his older associate, William Foster. He had observed, 
 when out the day previous, that the birds had a favor- 
 ite feeding place in a little bay near what in club 
 nomenclature is designated as "the horse-shoe." 
 To this place we wended our way as soon as we con Id 
 cross the intervening three miles of distance. The 
 bay was not large, and at its mouth was contracted 
 into two narrow points which were hardly a hundred 
 yards apart. 1 had never shot at this particular 
 point, and Jesse did not think of the effect of the sun 
 when he made his selection. One point was prob- 
 ably as favorable as the other, with that exception, 
 but the one he selected brought the birds directly 
 between me and that luminary when he shot his 
 burning and blinding rays from mid-heaven. The
 
 CUKRITUCK MARSHES. 131 
 
 result was, that before the day was over, reeds and 
 ducks and spots swam before my eyes in prismatic 
 hues. The heavens become alive with them, mixed 
 up with grasses and flowers, the gorgeous colors of 
 condensed sunlight. Scarlet ducks, golden ducks, 
 fiery ducks floated before my bewildered vision, inter- 
 woven with such flaming reeds and rushes as were 
 never seen by mortal eye before. To say that under 
 the circumstances I could not shoot with my accus- 
 tomed skill, is unnecessary ; I could not help occa- 
 sionally mistaking the flaming bird for the natural 
 one, and no doubt would have killed him, had he 
 only been real enough to kill. This was the second 
 occasion when I might have reached my stint of two 
 hundred, if I had only been so fortunate as to locate 
 properly in the first place, or even had had the cour- 
 age to change when I found out that I was wrong. 
 
 There are myriads of wild geese and swans in 
 Currituck Sound and its adjoining waters. The 
 swans are hard to kill, and it rarely falls to the for- 
 tune of any sportsman to bag more than two or three 
 of these beautiful birds in a season, but the geese 
 are shot in immense numbers on favorable days 
 "goosing days," as they are called. Such days are 
 made by a southwesterly wind blowing hard enough 
 to constitute a gale, and the harder the better, which 
 causes the water to rise and enables the geese to reach 
 the beaches where they go to sand. For this shoot- 
 ing a " stand," as it is called, of tamed wild geese 
 are required. The sportsman hides himself in a 
 large, water-tight box, which has been sunk in the
 
 132 CUER1TUCK MARSHES. 
 
 sand at the spot which the birds frequent, and the 
 ''stand" of living decoys are tethered in front by 
 stout strings fastened to their legs and pinned to -the 
 ground. The geese come to the stools in flocks, 
 and the slaughter at times is enormous, as many as 
 two hundred being no unusual bag, and that is often 
 rounded out with forty or fifty ducks. It is cus- 
 tomary on such occasions to put a live swan or two 
 with the geese decoys, if the sportsman happens to 
 be so fortunate as to possess them, and I never shall 
 forget seeing four swans come to a stand which was 
 located some distance from my own, but in full 
 view from it. I have always believed that birds 
 could converse and had a language of their own, and 
 on this occasion my theory received confirmation 
 strong as holy writ. When I have sat listening hour 
 after hour to the unceasing conversational cack- 
 lings of geese, who appear to be the most talkative 
 of birds, I fancied that I could almost make out the 
 words they uttered, and which were certainly under- 
 stood by the fowls themselves, as the dullest observer 
 would be convinced by their actions. Their ex- 
 pressions of comfort, their mild observations about 
 the weather may not have been quite comprehen- 
 sible, but their cries of alarm, their notes of warn- 
 ing, no one could mistake. Ignorant hearers not 
 versed in go'ose language, and a very pretty tongue 
 I have no doubt it is, may call it contemptuously 
 "gabble," but so is the language of any foreigner 
 "gabble" to those Avho do not understand it. 
 
 In the instance that I am about to mention with
 
 CURRITUCK MARSHES. 133 
 
 the swans, there could be no difficulty in under- 
 standing every word. There were four of them, the 
 wise father, the inquisitive mother, and two pretty, 
 innocent, dove-colored cygnets. They were sailing 
 along far up in the heavens, away out of danger, when 
 the attention of the young ones was attracted to a 
 nice, gentle old swan seated happily among a body 
 of geese that were evidently having a good time and 
 abundant food. In all the innocence of their uncor- 
 rupted hearts they uttered a shout of joy and started 
 to join him, the mother who was curious to under- 
 stand the meaning of so happy a combination, fol- 
 lowing eagerly behind them. In vain the cautious 
 father warned them to "go slow." They would not 
 stop to listen or to heed. On they flew or swam after 
 alighting on the water, giving free expression to 
 their feelings of pleasure. Louder and louder grew 
 the warning notes of the head of the house, who 
 hung back and tried to keep the others back, but his 
 efforts were useless, the young were guileless, and 
 the foolish wife inquisitive. He was too devoted to 
 leave his family, although the danger into which 
 they were running was apparent to him. Soon his 
 worst fears were realized. He was out of gunshot, 
 but his wife and children were within the fatal 
 reach of the deadly gun. Several loud reports fol- 
 lowed one another, and all was over. In an instant 
 he was childless and wifeless. The two cygnets were 
 killed dead, but the mother was able to fly a hundred 
 yards, and it was pitiful to see him go to her, braving 
 all danger, and to hear his cries of lamentation. He
 
 134 CUEEITUCK MARSHES. 
 
 could not save her, however, and when the boat ap- 
 proached with a gunner to complete the deadly work, 
 the poor old swan had to leave her. Still he kept 
 circling round for some time and filling the air with 
 his bitter lamentations. 
 
 In wild fowl shooting it is essential to learn the 
 various calls of the different species of ducks and of 
 the geese and swans. These it is impossible to 
 reproduce on paper, and about all that can be said 
 is that the raft ducks make various modifications 
 of the word " pritt," if it can be called a word ; that 
 the widgeons whistle, the geese honk, and the mal- 
 lards and black-ducks quack. Jesse had a curious 
 way of calling the shoal-water ducks by uttering in 
 rapid succession the word " Kek-kekkek, kek-kek- 
 kek-kek ;" and he seemed to attract them as well as 
 the patent duck-call which I had purchased in the 
 gun store for a dollar. For black-ducks, however, 
 I prefer the manufactured duck-call, and in going 
 out for them, I cannot too strongly impress upon the 
 reader the necessity for the utmost caution and the 
 most careful hiding. When shooting at some small 
 pond hole in the middle of the marshes, it is better 
 to only use one or two decoys and to be covered en- 
 tirely, except for a single opening in front, just large 
 enough to fire through, overlooking the stools. A 
 single tamed wild duck for this kind of sport is 
 worth all the wooden decoys in the world, and his 
 quack is better than Jesse's " kek " or my " squawk." 
 Some gunners can set up the birds they have killed 
 so as to be almost as natural as the living bird, and
 
 CURRITUCK MARSHES. 135 
 
 to deceive even the elect, but it is not an easy knack 
 to acquire. Usually such imitation stools look so 
 fearfully and abnormally dead, that they would drive 
 any duck, with the fear of ghosts before his mind, out 
 of the country. It is only the most experienced 
 gunner that can take such liberties with the dead. 
 
 At the North, where the winters are colder than 
 they are at Currituck, it is customary to shoot in the 
 ice. No waters that ducks frequent are ever en- 
 tirely frozen over ; there are always what are called 
 "breathing holes," where the gunner can place his 
 stools, and which the ducks frequent for food. He 
 dresses himself in white linen over his other clothes, 
 so as to be as near the color of the ice as possible, 
 and he uses a light skiff provided with iron runners 
 underneath. This he shoves rapidly over the ice 
 without much labor, carrying his dozen or so of 
 stools aboard, and using an iron-pointed pole to 
 propel himself with. He has his oars stowed under 
 the narrow deck, so that he can row across open 
 water, and i.3 safe in case his skiff should break 
 through the ice. When he has reached the open 
 hole that he has selected, he throws out his stools 
 and cuts a place in the ice at the edge of the hole, 
 to hide himself and his boat, piling the cakes that 
 he takes out alongside of him, to further assist in 
 hiding him. The decoys he uses are black-ducks 
 and whistlers, which will stool to one another indis- 
 criminately. He must then lie down on his back 
 in the skiff, and no matter how cold he may be, he 
 must not move or stir. Though his blood chills and
 
 136 CURRITUCK MARSHES. 
 
 the marrow of his bones freezes, he must bear it, for 
 there is no telling at what instant the birds may dart 
 down upon him from the heavens, as they have a 
 way of doing without giving the sportsman the least 
 warning. Shooting in the ice has sent many a 
 healthy man to a consumptive's grave. 
 
 In closing this article, let me give a final bit of 
 wisdom in the words of William Foster. It is well 
 known to every wild-fowler, but his way of putting 
 it covers in a few words the whole ground : " Ee- 
 member, that as a general rule, the shoal-water ducks 
 go with the shoal-water ducks, and the diving ducks 
 go with the diving ducks, so they will pretty well 
 stool in the same way. Each prefers his own kind 
 a little the best, I think, but not enough to make a 
 decided difference, provided the stools are of the 
 same class. Widgeon like widgeon, and canvas- 
 backs will only stool to canvas-backs or red-heads, 
 but broad-bills will come to canvas-back stools al- 
 most as well as they will come to broad-bill stools. 
 Black-ducks prefer black-duck stools, but sprigtails 
 and mallards will come to black-duck stools nearly 
 as readily as they will to their own. Don't, however, 
 use canvas-back stools for black-ducks, nor, above 
 all, black-duck stools for canvas-backs."
 
 PART 11. 
 
 GAME WATER BIRDS.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GAME AND ITS PROTECTION". 
 
 BY the ancient law of 1 and 2 William IV., chap. 
 32, under the designation of game, were included 
 " hares, pheasants, partridges, grouse, heath or 
 moor game, black game, and bustards." 
 
 Hunting and hawking date back to the earliest 
 days of knight-errantry, when parties of cavaliers 
 and ladies fair, mounted on their mettlesome steeds 
 caparisoned with all the skill of the cunning arti- 
 ficers of those clays, pursued certain birds of the air 
 with the falcon, and followed the royal stag through 
 the well preserved and extensive forests with packs 
 of hounds. The term game, therefore, had an early 
 significance and positive application, but was con- 
 fined to the creatures pursued in one or the other 
 of these two modes. 
 
 The gun was first used for the shooting of feather- 
 ed game in the early part of the eighteenth century; 
 it soon became the favorite implement of the sports- 
 man, and was brought into use, not only against the
 
 140 GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 
 
 birds', but the beasts, of game. The huntsman no 
 longer depends upon his brave dog and cloth-yard 
 shaft, but upon his own powers of endurance and of 
 marksmanship. Instead of watching the savage fal- 
 con strike his prey far up in the heavens, he follows 
 his high-bred setters, till their wonderful natural in- 
 stinct betrays to him the presence of the game. 
 
 Where he once rode after the yelping pack, sound- 
 ing the merry notes of his bugle horn, he now climbs 
 and crawls laboriously, until he brings the wary stag 
 within range of the deadly rifle. No more brilliant 
 parties of lovely dames and gallant men, chatting 
 merrily on the incidents of the day, ride gaily 
 decked steeds; no more the luxury of the beautiful 
 faces and pleasant companionship of the gentler 
 sex is to be enjoyed ; the ladies of modern times 
 except in England, where they occasionally follow 
 foxes, which are rather vermin than game prefer- 
 ring the excitement of ball-room flirtations to out- 
 door sports and pleasures, take no part in the pur- 
 suits of the chase. 
 
 Together with the change in the mode of captur- 
 ing game, comes a necessity for a change in its 
 former restricted meaning. Who would think of 
 not including among game birds, the gamest of 
 them all the magnificent woodcock ; nor the stylish 
 English snipe, nor even possibly the brave little quail 
 unless he can be scientifically proved to be a par- 
 tridge which is at least doubtful! Migratory birds 
 were not included in the sacred list, and the quail 
 in England, as the woodcock and snipe of both
 
 GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 
 
 England and America, are migratory, although the 
 mere temporary character of their residence does 
 not, in our view, at all alter the nature of their 
 claims. The larger European woodcock is by no 
 means so delicious or highly flavored a bird as our 
 yello w-breasted, round-eyed beauty, and is much 
 scarcer ; while the foreign quail, on the other hand, 
 is smaller than ours, and in southern Europe is 
 found in vast flocks ; but both are entitled to high 
 rank among modern sportsmen. 
 
 The term Game Birds, therefore, should be, and 
 has been by general consent, greatly extended in its 
 application, and applied to all the numerous species 
 which, whether migratory or not, are killed not 
 alone for the market, but for sport; and which are 
 followed on the stubble fields, in brown November, 
 with the strong-limbed and keen-nosed setter, or 
 shot from blind in scorching August ; slain from 
 battery in freezing December, or chased in a boat, 
 or misled by decoys. All wild birds that furnish 
 sport as well as profit are therefore game ; and the 
 gentle dowitchers along our sea-coast, lured to the 
 deceitful stools, are as much entitled to the name as 
 the stately ruffed grouse of our wild woods, or the 
 royal turkey of the far west. 
 
 To constitute a legitimate object of true sport, the 
 bird must be habitually shot on the wing, and the 
 greater the skill required in its capture, the higher 
 its rank. The turkey, therefore, although frequently 
 killed on the wing, is more a game bird by suffer- 
 ance than by right, and partly from his gastronomic
 
 142 GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 
 
 as well as from his other qualities. Under this 
 classification, then, we must include, not merely the 
 ruffed and pinnated grouse, which, although the 
 only species in our country coming within the 
 ancient definition, furnish far less sport than many 
 other varieties, but woodcock, snipe, quail, geese, 
 ducks, bay birds, plover, and rail ; without regard to 
 the fact that all, except the quail, are migratory, 
 and most were unknown to our British ancestry. 
 It has been even supposed that the quail, in parts 
 of our country free from deep rivers and impassable 
 barriers, are also in a measure migratory ; but this 
 has no other foundation than their habit of wander- 
 ing from place to place in search of food, and col- 
 lecting late in the season, as they will do where they 
 are numerous and undisturbed in large packs. 
 
 To the protection of this vast variety of game it 
 is the sportsman's duty to address himself, in spite 
 of the opposition of the market-man and restaurateur, 
 the mean-spirited poaching of the pot-hunter, and 
 the lukewarmness of the farmer. The latter can be 
 enlisted in the cause; he has indirectly the objects 
 of the sportsman at heart ; and with proper enlight- 
 enment will assist, not merely to preserve his fields 
 from ruthless injury, but to save from destruction 
 his friends the song-birds. 
 
 As the true sportsman turns his attention only to 
 legitimate sport, destroying those birds that are but 
 little if at all useful to the farmer ; and as at the 
 same time, out of gratitude for the kindness with 
 which the latter generally receives him, he is care-
 
 GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 143 
 
 ful never to invade the high grass or the ripening 
 grain so also, from his innate love of nature, and of 
 everything that makes nature more beautiful, he 
 spares and defends the warblers of the woods and the 
 innocent worm-devourers that stand guardian over the 
 trees and crops. The smaller birds destroy immense 
 numbers of worms; cedar-birds have been known 
 to eat hundreds of caterpillars, and in this city 
 have cleared the public squares in a morning's visit 
 of the disgusting measuring-worms, that were hang- 
 ing by thousands pendent from the branches. And 
 who has not heard the " woodpecker tapping " all 
 day long in pursuit of his prey ? 
 
 With the barbarous and senseless destruction of 
 our small birds, the ravages of the worms have 
 augmented, until we hear from all the densely-set- 
 tled portions of the country loud complaints of their 
 attacks. Peach-trees perish ; cherries are no longer 
 the beautiful fruit they once were ; apples are dis- 
 figured, and plums have almost ceased to exist. 
 Worms appear upon every vegetable thing; the 
 borers dig their way beneath the bark of the trunk 
 and cut long alleys through the wood ; weevils 
 pierce the grain and eat out its pith ; the leaf-eaters 
 of various sorts punch out the delicate membrane by 
 individual effort; or collecting in bodies, throw 
 their nets, like a spider-web, over the branches, and 
 by combined attacks deliberately devour every leaf. 
 While these species are at work openly and in full 
 sight, others are at the roots digging and destroy- 
 ing and multiplying; until the tree that at first
 
 144 GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 
 
 gave evidence of hardiness and promise of long 
 utility to man, pauses in its growth, becomes deli- 
 cate, fades, and finally dies. 
 
 The destruction of these vermicular pests is a 
 question of life or death to the farmer. He may 
 attempt it either with his own labor, by tarring his 
 trees, fastening obstructions on the trunks, or by 
 killing individuals ; or he may have it done for him, 
 free of expense, by innumerable flocks of the deni- 
 zens of the air. The increase of worms must be 
 stopped ; the means of doing so is a question of 
 serious public concern, and none have yet been in- 
 vented so effectual as the natural course the res- 
 toration of the equipoise of nature. It is true that 
 the robin, as we call him, now and then steals a 
 cherry, and has been blamed as though he were 
 nothing more than a cherry-thief; but surely we 
 can spare him a little fruit for his dessert, when we 
 remember that his meal has been composed mainly 
 of the deadly enemies of that very fruit ! Swallows 
 are accused of breeding lice, which, if true, would 
 not be a serious charge, considering that their nests 
 are generally in the loftiest and least accessible cor- 
 ner they can find ; but when we consider how many 
 millions of noxious flies and poisonous mosquitoes 
 they destroy, how they hover over the swamps and 
 meadows for this especial purpose, and how much 
 annoyance their labors save to human kind, we owe 
 them gratitude instead of abuse. 
 
 Every tribe of birds has its allotted part to play ; 
 and if destroyed, not only will its pleasant songs and
 
 GAME AND ITS PKOTECTION". 145 
 
 bright feathers, gleaming amid the green leaves, be 
 missed, but some species of bug or insect, some 
 disgusting caterpillar or injurious fly, will escape 
 well merited destruction, and increasingly visit upon 
 man the punishment of his cruelty and folly. 
 
 The beautiful blue-birds, the numerous wood- 
 peckers, the tiny wrens, the graceful swallows and 
 noisy martins, are sacred to the sportsman, and con- 
 stitute one great division of the creatures that he 
 desires to protect. It is true that enthusiastic for- 
 eigners, with cast-iron guns, are seen peering into 
 trees and lurking through the woods, proud of a 
 dirty bag half filled with robins, thrushes, and wood- 
 peckers ; but let no ignorant reader confound such 
 persons with sportsmen. Their satisfaction in slay- 
 ing one beautiful little warbler, as full of melody as 
 it is bare of meat, with a deadly charge of No. 4 
 shot ; or in chasing from tree to tree the agile red 
 squirrel, who, with bushy tail erect, leaps from one 
 limb to another, emulating the very birds them- 
 selves with his agility, is as unsportsmanlike as to 
 kill a cheeping quail, that, struggling from the thick 
 weeds in September before the pointer's nose, with 
 feeble wings, skirts the low brush; or to murder 
 the brooding woodcock, that flutters up before the 
 dog in June, and, with holy maternal instinct, en- 
 deavours to lead the pursuer from her infant brood. 
 
 From such acts the veritable sportsman turns 
 with horror ; they arc cruelty the slaughter of 
 what is useless for food, or what, by its death, will 
 produce misery to others; and no persons in the
 
 146 GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 
 
 community have done more to repress this wanton- 
 ness of destruction than the Sportsmen's Clubs. It 
 was at their request that the killing of song-birds 
 was prohibited altogether; and they are the most 
 earnest to restrict the times of lawful sport to such 
 periods as will not, by any possibility, permit its' 
 being followed during the season of incubation. 
 
 Not alone by obtaining the passage of appropriate 
 laws and their vigorous enforcement, have these 
 clubs effected a great reform ; but by their personal 
 example and social influence, often, too, at consider- 
 able loss to themselves. For while the poacher, 
 taking the chance of a legal conviction as an acci- 
 dent of business, and but a slight reduction of his 
 unlawful profits, anticipates the appointed time, true 
 sportsmen, restrained by a feeling of honor and self- 
 respect, although they know that the birds are being 
 killed daily in defiance of the statute, wait till the 
 laAvful day arrives, and thus often, especially in 
 woodcock shooting, sacrifice their entire season's 
 sport for a principle. 
 
 This honorable spirit, if encouraged and extended, 
 is the best protection for song-birds and game that 
 can be had. The laws are only necessary to deter 
 those who are dead to honor and decency, and to 
 fix the proper times which ought to be uniform 
 throughout our entire country. But to enforce them 
 requires the assistance of public opinion. Every 
 encouragement should be given to sportsmen's asso- 
 ciations. The absurd prejudice that has originated 
 from confounding them with a very different class
 
 GAME AND ITS PKOTECTION. 147 
 
 of the community should be overcome, and their 
 efforts to have good laws passed, and to make them 
 effectual, should be sustained. The vulgar idea, 
 that confounds laws for the protection of the wild 
 creatures of wood, meadow, lake, and stream, with 
 the monstrous game-laws of olden time that made 
 killing a hare more criminal than killing a man^- 
 should be corrected. 
 
 In this country, where every man is expected to 
 be a sort of volunteer-policeman, all should unite in 
 enforcing the laws; and then, in spite of the irre- 
 pressible obstinacy of the German enthusiast, and 
 the mean cunning of the sneaking poacher, our 
 cities would soon be rid of the disgusting worms 
 that make their trees hideous, our farms protected 
 from the devastations of the cnrculio, the weevil, 
 the borer, and the army-worm ; the country would 
 once more be populated with its native feathered 
 game, and our fields would resound with the glad 
 songs of the little birds that there build their 
 homes. 
 
 So long as the ignorant of our nouveaux riches, 
 imagining themselves to be epicures, will pay for 
 unseasonable game an extravagant price, so long 
 will unscrupulous market-men purchase, and loafing, 
 disreputable, tavern-haunting poachers shoot or other- 
 wise kill their prey. It must be made a disgrace, 
 and if necessary punished as a crime, for any modern 
 Lucullus to insult his guests by presenting to them 
 game out of season ; and eating-house keepers should 
 not only be taught by persistent espionage, if ne-
 
 148 GAME AND ITS PKOTECTION. 
 
 cessary that illegal profits will not equal legal 
 punishments ; but their customers should also dis- 
 courage, by withdrawing their patronage, conduct 
 that is so injurious to the public interests. Wood- 
 cock would not be shot in spring, nor quail in sum- 
 mer, unless the demand for them were sufficiently 
 great to pay both the expense of capture and the 
 danger of exposure; and, with a diminution of pur- 
 chasers, will be an increased diminution of the num- 
 ber of birds improperly killed. 
 
 Birds and fish, except in their proper seasons, are 
 always tasteless, and often unhealthy food. A set- 
 ting quail or a spawning trout is absolutely unfit to 
 eat, and to do without them is no sacrifice ; but for 
 the sportsman to restrain his ardor as the close-time 
 draws towards an end, and when others less scrupu- 
 lous are filling their bags daily, or when in the 
 wilder sections of country there is no one to com- 
 plain or object, requires the heroism of self-denial. 
 Nevertheless, the effect of example should not be 
 forgotten, and the duty of the true sportsman is 
 clear and unmistakable : he must abide by the law ; 
 or, where there is no law, must govern himself by 
 analogous rules. 
 
 In the wilderness, it is true, where birds are abun- 
 dant to excess, he may without blame supply his 
 pot with cheeping grouse or wood-duck flappers, if 
 he can offer hunger as an excuse; but not even 
 there, unless driven by extremity, can he slay the 
 parent of a brood that will starve without parental 
 care. In the settled regions, no matter how great
 
 GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 149 
 
 the provocation, the true sportsman will never for- 
 get the chivalric motto, noblesse oblige. 
 
 The close-times of the present statutes are not 
 altogether correct ; and in so extensive a locality as 
 the United States, where diverse interests are to be 
 considered, it is nearly impracticable to make the 
 laws perfect. For instance, where quail are abun- 
 dant, as in the South, there is no objection to killing 
 them during the entire month of January ; but, as 
 at that period they are often lean and tough, and 
 have to contend, in the Northern States, against 
 dangers of the elements and rapacious vermin, with 
 not too favorable a chance for life it is undesirable, 
 where they are in the least scarce, to continue the 
 pursuit after December. 
 
 If it were possible to make a uniform law for the 
 entire Union, and to enforce it everywhere, English 
 snipe and ducks should not be killed at all during 
 the spring. The latter at the time of their flight 
 northward are poor and fishy ; but if they can be 
 slain in New Jersey, it is hardly worth while to 
 protect them, in New York. For every duck or 
 snipe that passes towards the hatching-grounds of 
 British America in the early part of the year, four 
 or five return in the fall and winter. Could proper 
 protection, therefore, be enforced, the sport in the 
 latter season would be four times as great as in the 
 former. 
 
 As matters stand, however, the seasons for killing 
 game birds should be: For woodcock, from July 
 fourth to December thirty-first; for ruffed and pin-
 
 150 GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 
 
 natecl grouse, from September first and quail from 
 November first to the same period, both days in- 
 clusive ; for wood-duck from August first till they 
 migrate southward. It is desirable to fix upon an- 
 niversaries or days that are easily remembered. 
 Woodcock are often young and weak in early sum- 
 mer, and the three days gained between the first 
 and the fourth of July are quite an advantage. 
 Although the first brood of quail may be fully 
 grown in October, a vast number of the birds are 
 too small, and the brush is too dense and thick 
 before the first of the ensuing month ; whereas it 
 is simply monstrous to slay pinnated grouse, put 
 up by the panting, overheated pointer from the 
 high grass of the western prairie, in the month of 
 August, ere they can half fly. But the migratory 
 birds of the coast the waterfowl and snipe, the 
 waders and plovers may continue to be shot when 
 they can be found, till their rapidly diminishing 
 numbers shall compel a more sensible and consider- 
 ate treatment. 
 
 The bay-snipe lead the advancing army of the 
 game birds that have sought the cool and secluded 
 marshes of Hudson's Bay and the Northern Ocean 
 to raise their young, and are hastening south from 
 approaching cold and darkness to more congenial 
 climes. Next come the beautiful wood-duck, and, 
 almost simultaneously, the English snipe ; then the 
 swift but diminutive teal; after him the broad-bill 
 or the blue-bill of the west ; and then a host of 
 other ducks, till the hardy canvas-backs and geese
 
 GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 151 
 
 bring up the rear. From July, when the yellow- 
 legs and dowitchers abound ; throughout August, in 
 which month the larger bay-birds are continuously 
 streaming by ; during September, when the English 
 snipe are on the meadows and the wood-ducks in the 
 lily-pad marshes of the fresh-water lakes ; in Octo- 
 ber, when the teal and blue-bills are abundant in the 
 great west; all through the fall and into winter, 
 when the geese and canvas-backs arrive, the bay- 
 man finds his sport in perfection. 
 
 Many of the upland birds are disappearing ; the 
 quail is being killed with merciless energy, and his 
 loved haunts of dense brush are cleared away from 
 year to year ; the woodcock can hardly rest in peace 
 long enough to rear her young, and finds many of 
 her favorite secluded spots drained by the enterpris- 
 ing farmer ; the ruffed grouse disappears with the 
 receding forest, and the prairie chicken with the 
 cultivation of the open land. But although innu- 
 merable ducks, snipe, find plovers are killed every 
 season, and by unjustifiable measures are driven 
 from certain localities, their vast flights throughout 
 the whole country amounting to myriads in the 
 west are apparently as innumerable as ever. 
 
 From the first of August to the last of December 
 they stretch athwart the sky from the Atlantic to 
 the Pacific ; and although in localities they may 
 appear scarce, still constitute countless hosts. Were 
 it possible to stand on some peak of the Rocky 
 Mountains, and take in at a glance the vast stretch 
 of heavens from ocean to ocean, with the moving
 
 152 GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 
 
 myriads of migratory flocks, the mind would be 
 astonished ; and it would seem impossible ever to 
 reduce their numbers. This is to a certain degree 
 true; for so long as the lagoons of the South shall 
 remain undisturbed, and the shores of the bays and 
 rivers unoccupied to any great extent, this abun- 
 dance of the migratory birds will continue. 
 
 But who can tell how long this will last ? The 
 methods of destruction are being perfected, the 
 number of destroyers is increasing, until now the 
 reverberation of the fowling piece accompanies the 
 water-fowl from the rocky shores of Maine to the 
 sandy coasts of North Carolina with the unceasing 
 roar of threatened death. Twenty years ago, and 
 "batteries," as they are 'called, the sunken floats 
 which are the most fatal ambushes of the gunner, 
 were almost unknown south of Havre de Grace; 
 now they are so abundant throughout the waters of 
 North Carolina that the migratory bird is never 
 out of ear-shot of them during his entire journey. 
 
 It would be better for the permanence of wild- 
 fowl shooting never to use batteries where fair sport 
 can be obtained from points or blinds. Ducks, 
 geese, and, above all, swans have great faith in the 
 sharpness of their eyes and the acuteness of their 
 noses. Dangers that they can see they are rather 
 tempted to scorn.. They learn to shun points 
 where man may conceal his murderous propensities, 
 and are not to be inveigled by the apparent security 
 of the deceitful likenesses of themselves which are 
 innocently nestling near by. They seek the safety
 
 GAME AND ITS PKOTECTION. 153 
 
 of the open water, and feed in the narrow bays and 
 marsh-encompassed ponds during moonlight nights, 
 if they belong to the tribes that are compelled to 
 gain their living by grubbing at the bottom, with 
 heads down and tails up. And no matter how they 
 are harried in certain places, they feel safe in others 
 close at hand. But the battery, sunken to a level 
 with the water and hidden by the stand of decoys 
 around it, placed on their favorite feeding grounds 
 and in the broad bosom of the open bays, is too 
 much for their courage or sagacity. To see a man, 
 a merciless and murderous mortal, arise in all his 
 horrid aspect from the depths of the sea, from the 
 middle of a body of their fellows, is a terror that 
 custom never stales. After a few such experiences, 
 they lose faith in themselves, and, if possible, take 
 flight to safer and more propitious realms. 
 
 To those who are accustomed to it, there is no 
 more delightful method of shooting than from a 
 battery, but a novice will find much trouble in be- 
 coming accustomed to the confined position and 
 the awkwardness of motion. I remember, years 
 ago, hearing Mr. Dominy, who then kept the fa- 
 mous sporting hostelry at Fire Island, say that if he 
 was to shoot on a wager for his life, he would pre- 
 fer to shoot from a battery rather than in any other 
 way. To one not used to the narrow box and con- 
 strained position, lying on one's back does not seem 
 to be the most cheerful manner of killing any spe- 
 cies of game. There is everything in habit, and 
 certainly the exhilaration of watching the approach
 
 154 GAME AND ITS PKOTECTION. 
 
 of the birds 'as they come nearer and nearer, and 
 grow larger and larger, from mere specks on the 
 horizon to the size of broad-bills, canvas-backs, or 
 perhaps brant or geese, is hardly to be surpassed by 
 any kind of sport. In most of the Southern waters 
 the destructive nature of these machines is so well 
 recognized, that non-residents are not permitted to 
 use them, and the natives keep this method of 
 wild-fowling to themselves. 
 
 The shooter lies on his back in this modified cof- 
 fin, and whenever a flock approaches he rises to a 
 sitting posture and fires. He cannot leave his float- 
 ing home, and is unable to retrieve his ducks with- 
 out the aid of ah assistant. There have been many 
 accidents arising from carelessness or inexperience, 
 not merely in the use of the machine itself, but 
 from the fault of the tender; and so many guns 
 have blown holes in the bottom of the box, that it 
 is the habit of the gunners on the south side of 
 Long Island always to warn green hands, and in- 
 struct them how to rest and hold their guns. In 
 two instances within my own knowledge, the sailing 
 boat that accompanies the shooter, and serves as his 
 tender and protector, was unable to return to him. 
 In one case it was driven to leeward, and could not 
 work back to windward, and in the other it went 
 aground on a falling tide just before 'dark, when 
 the thermometer ranged but little above zero. In 
 both cases the sportsmen were saved, but in both 
 the hand of death grazed them closely. 
 
 Night shooting is a still more deleterious prac-
 
 GAME AND ITS PROTECTION". 155 
 
 tice. Wild fowl must be allowed to rest at night; 
 indeed, the same might be said of most other ani- 
 mals, including the human family. If they are 
 not, they will inevitably wend their way elsewhere. 
 The discharge of one shot at night, with its accom- 
 paniment of flame, and its noise reverberating 
 more horribly in the still and silent hours, will do 
 more to frighten away the marsh ducks than any 
 amount of daylight shooting. As the night begins 
 to fall, the fowl begin to seek the .marshes. They 
 rise from the open water where they have been 
 resting, perhaps without being able to feed at all, 
 and move towards the shore, coming on in a steady 
 unbroken flight, until they have all found nesting 
 and feeding grounds in the shoal water. Drive 
 them from such places in the night, and there will 
 be no shooting during the day. 
 
 The use of pivot-guns is another reprehensible 
 practice that has been so earnestly condemned, even 
 among market-gunners, that it has been in a great 
 measure abandoned. Still, however, in some quiet 
 bay of one of the groat lakes of the West, where 
 there is no one to observe the iniquity, or of a moon- 
 light night on the Chesapeake, the poaching mur- 
 derer, sculling his boat clown upon an unsuspicious 
 flock crowded together and feeding or asleep, will 
 discharge a pound or two of coarse shot from his 
 diminutive cannon ; and wounding hundreds, will 
 kill scores of ducks at the one fatal discharge. The 
 noise, however, reverberating over land and water, 
 scatters the tidings of the guilty act far and wide ;
 
 156 GAME AND ITS PEOTECTION. 
 
 and often brings upon the criminal detection and 
 punishment. To avoid this the pivot-shooter will 
 sometimes, as soon as he has fired, throw his gun 
 overboard with a buoy attached to it, and if pur- 
 sued, pretend he has used nothing but his small 
 fowling-piece. The practice of pivot-shooting, how- 
 ever, has almost ceased, never having been exten- 
 sively adopted ; and has nothing whatever sports- 
 manlike about it, being a mixture of cruelty and 
 theft. 
 
 Another mode of pursuing ducks, which is at the 
 same time attractive, exciting, and injurious, is by 
 the use of a sail-boat. Not only is there the ex- 
 citement of the pursuit, the rushing down wind 
 with bellying sail and hissing water the crested 
 waves parting at the prow and lengthening out 
 behind in two long lines of foam but there is the 
 free motion and the pleasant breeze tv stimulate 
 the sportsman. This is really a delightful sport, 
 combining the excitement of shooting with the ex- 
 hilaration of sailing ; but as it disturbs the flocks 
 upon their feeding-grounds, as it gives them no rest 
 during the noontide hours, when it appears that 
 ducks like all other sensible people love to in- 
 dulge in a quiet nap, it eventually drives them 
 away ; and not only makes them shy of the locality, 
 but injures the sport of the point-shooter, who de- 
 pends upon their regular flights for his success. It 
 is not often very remunerative, but is uncommonly 
 attractive, and is only condemned with great re- 
 luctance on proof of its injurious results.
 
 GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 157 
 
 
 
 But while sailing for ducks is wisely forbidden 
 by the laws of New York and of most of the older 
 States, that prohibition should not be stretched be- 
 yond the true meaning and intent of the statute. 
 Coots, the big black sea coot of the coast and his 
 congeners, not the little mud coot or blue peter of 
 the fresh waters, may be ducks from a scientific 
 point of view, but they were never intended to be 
 included in the prohibition. These dusky gentle- 
 men are wonderful divers, they swim under Avater 
 almost as readily and rapidly as they fly abov.e it, 
 and seek their food at the bottom. They do not so 
 much live on fish, in fact I have never noticed fish 
 in their stomachs, although some authorities say 
 that they feed on them, but they devour incredible 
 numbers of small clams, and oysters. They are not 
 content to take the full grown bivalve, two or three 
 of which would make a solid meal even for a vora- 
 cious coot, but they invariably select the tiny fel- 
 lows just starting in life, and of whom it takes a 
 great many to furnish forth a breakfast or dinner. 
 There is little sport in shooting these tough fellows, 
 and no sport except in killing them from a sailboat 
 when underway. 
 
 In this chapter on the obligations that man owes 
 to his feathered friends, his naturalized assistants 
 must not be forgotten. The imported sparrow, 
 though small in himself, has done a great work for 
 our country, and still more for our cities. We all 
 know that gratitude is a fleeting sentiment, and 
 looks rather to things hoped for than to those
 
 158 GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 
 
 which have already been conferred, and it is some- 
 what the fashion to decry the bustling busy immi- 
 grant from abroad; but those who remember the 
 condition of our streets and parks, hung full with 
 disgusting measuring worms pendent from every 
 tree and branch, till to pass through them was an 
 annoyance, will not wholly forget our debt to the 
 English sparrow. He has been, wrongfully I 
 think, accused of driving away our native birds., 
 but before we condemn him it will have to be 
 shown, not only that he has done so, but in addi- 
 tion that he has driven away birds more useful 
 than himself. 
 
 It is but a few years since he was first brought 
 among us, and already have the caterpillars so thor- 
 oughly disappeared, that one is rarely seen in our 
 streets, and the trees are allowed to bear their foli- 
 age in peace, instead of being reduced to bare 
 boughs, as was their invariable fate in old times. 
 The sparrow has been accused, and has been com- 
 pelled to plead guilty of the crime of not eating 
 the hairy as well as the smooth-skinned caterpillar, 
 but it ought to be urged in mitigation, before he is 
 condemned to condign punishment, that his adver- 
 saries do not do so either, while they are guilty of 
 the further crime of not even eating the smooth- 
 skinned kinds.
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 GUNNERY MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 
 
 To the young sportsman, armed with the finest of 
 implements, and trusting much to them for his suc- 
 cess, it is a matter of mortification and surprise how 
 well a bad gun will shoot in good hands ; never- 
 theless, no true sportsman ever lived but, if he 
 were able by any self-denial to scrape the. means 
 together, would purchase a valuable and necessarily 
 expensive fowling-piece. !Not only is a well made 
 and handsomely finished gun safer and lighter than 
 a cheap affair manufactured for the wholesale trade ; 
 not only does it ordinarily carry closer and recoil 
 less ; but it needs fewer repairs, lasts infinitely longer, 
 and is always a matter of pride and delight to its 
 owner. 
 
 Many guns of inferior workmanship throw shot 
 as strongly as those turned out by the best makers 
 although this is not the fact in general but greater 
 weight has to be given to insure tolerable safety, 
 and the locks, if not the barrels, are sure to give 
 out in a few years ; whereas the high-priced article 
 will be as perfect at the end of a dozen years 
 which have accustomed its owner to its easy, rapid, 
 and effective management as it was in the begin- 
 ning, and will endure until failing sight, wasting
 
 160 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 
 
 disease, or accumulating years, shall compel its trans* 
 fer into younger hands. 
 
 Unless a man has continual practice, or is an ex- 
 cellent shot, it is a serious undertaking to change 
 his gun and accustom himself to another, which, 
 although apparently identical in weight and shape, 
 will inevitably differ in some slight point that will 
 be sufficient to destroy, for a time, accuracy in aim 
 and prompt execution in cover. Some persons re- 
 quire months to acquire the effective use of a new 
 gun under difficult circumstances; and in those 
 dense thickets where so much of our shooting is 
 done, and where it is by instinct founded upon long 
 habit that the sportsman is enabled at all to kill 
 his game, and where he cannot indulge in the de- 
 liberate care that more open shooting allows 
 this deficiency will be most painfully apparent. 
 For such persons to purchase a new piece, is equi- 
 valent to throwing away the sport of an entire sum- 
 mer or fall, and when we consider that few of us 
 can expect to average more than forty summers or 
 falls, the loss of one-fortieth part of life's enjoyment 
 is no trivial deprivation. 
 
 A very cheap gun is dangerous; but it is not ex- 
 pected that any person reading these lines will trust 
 his life with an instrument that common sense tells 
 him is manufactured to kill at both' ends. A gun of 
 moderate price, that is, from forty to fifty dollars, 
 is as safe as the most expensive the iron is not so 
 tough, but more of it is used ; but in a short time 
 the barrels will wear away ; the locks, losing their
 
 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 161 
 
 original quick spring and sharp click, will become 
 dull and weak, till they will scarcely discharge the 
 cap ; and the stock, warping with the weather, will 
 exhibit yawning fissures between itself and the iron 
 lock-plates or false breech. 
 
 In lightness, however, is the great superiority of 
 the highly wrought implement ; and in hard tramp- 
 ing through a dense swamp of a hot July day, 
 or deep wading in a soft snipe-meadow, or in a 
 wearisome trudge over hill and dale after Novem- 
 ber quail, a pound will make itself felt in the addi- 
 tional weight of the fowling-piece, and not only so, 
 but a light gun can be handled more readily. In 
 open shooting, especially for the wild fowl of our 
 bays and coasts, mere weight is a positive advan- 
 tage ; but in the tangled thickets, where birds flash 
 out of sight like gleams of party-colored light, and 
 the instantaneous use of the piece can alone secure 
 success, a light gun is an absolute necessity. 
 
 Moreover, on certain occasions, when the barrels 
 are exposed to an extraordinary strain, when the 
 piece built for light charges and upland shooting is 
 used temporarily upon the larger game of the coasts 
 or woods, and the two and a half drachms of powder 
 and ounce of fine shot are replaced by a dozen buck- 
 shot, or an ounce and a half of No. 3 driven by five 
 drachms of powder then it is pleasant to feel that 
 the iron is of the utmost possible tenacity and the 
 workmanship in every way faultless. 
 
 A learned dissertation on the science of gun- 
 nery is neither appropriate to the occasion nor
 
 162 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 
 
 possible to the author, and would probably prove 
 as little entertaining as instructive to the reader. 
 The majority of purchasers cannot form an exact 
 opinion relative to the merits of a gun prepared 
 with the utmost skill and ingenuity to deceive them, 
 and must rely mainly on the word of the seller or 
 reputation of the maker. There is something, to 
 be sure, in the smooth working of the locks, and 
 still more in the perfect fitting of the stock ; but 
 after all, even to the experienced sportsman, there 
 is little difference in appearance between the Sham- 
 damn and the purest laminated steel. 
 
 American importers have a peculiarly moral 
 and respectable habit of vending German guns 
 stamped with the names of English makers, and 
 pacify their consciences with the idea that the 
 manufactures of Germany are not inferior to those 
 of England; but they would give more satisfaction 
 to the public and more ease to their consciences by 
 proving this in open contest, and establishing the 
 reputation of the German makers, than by appro- 
 priating the names and reputations that good 
 work has made famous. So far is this deception 
 carried, that some houses even order from the Bel- 
 gian manufacturers a certain number, nominally, of 
 each of the leading gun-makers. It may be that 
 there is little real difference, although on the con- 
 tinental guns you sometimes pay for useless orna- 
 ment, money that should have been expended where 
 it would tell, on locks and barrels ; but the mode of 
 proceeding is certainly not creditable.
 
 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 163 
 
 In a highly finished article the locks usually work 
 with a smooth oiliness that can be distinguished 
 with a little practice, and are fitted with great 
 accuracy into the stock, so that projections of wood 
 will be left standing not thicker than a piece of 
 blotting-paper. The barrels will be without flaw 
 or indentation, and if looked, through with the 
 breech removed, will exhibit a perfect ring of 
 light flowing up evenly, as they are raised or low- 
 ered. The mountings will be faultless, and the cuts 
 in all the screw-heads will point in the same direc- 
 tion ; the screws will work easily and yet perfectly, 
 and the triggers and trigger-plate, which are inva- 
 riably neglected in a poor gun, will be admirably 
 finished and fitted. Examine all these particulars, 
 but especially the last, and you can form some judg- 
 ment whether the piece comes from a good maker 
 or a spurious imitator. 
 
 The greatest attention, however, in the selection 
 of a gun should be paid to the form of the stock 
 and the pull of the triggers ; if the former is unsuited 
 to the shape of the purchaser, or the latter are stiff 
 or dissimilar, the consequence will be utter failure 
 that no amount of practice will remedy. If the pur- 
 chaser's arms and neck are long, the stock may be 
 long and crooked ; but if the contrary is the case, the 
 stock must be short and straight. 
 
 If possible, the person intending to use a gun should 
 select it for himself; and if if does not "come up 
 right " the first time he brings it to his eye, he should 
 refuse it positively. He must not allow himself to
 
 164 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 
 
 be persuaded to try it again and again ; for after 
 one or two trials he will instinctively adapt his eye 
 to its construction, and will imagine the gun suits 
 him an impression that the rapid flight of the first 
 quail he endeavors to cover will dissipate. The 
 triggers should give back at a weight of four or five 
 pounds ; the hammers of a muzzle-loader at ten or 
 twelve, and of a breech-loader at twelve or fourteen. 
 For the former, the best cone is what is called the 
 inverted, where the bore is larger at the top and 
 receives the entire flame from the cap. 
 
 The shape of the breech for the muzzle-loader for- 
 merly gave rise to much learned, disquisition and 
 many plausible theories ; but, in all probability, had 
 no influence on the shooting, which is due mainly to 
 the form and quality of the barrels. Joe Manton 
 founded his fame on the idea that the lines offeree, 
 if reflected from a hollow cup, like rays of light from 
 a reflector, would be directed parallel to one ano- 
 ther and lengthwise of the barrel ; but later expe- 
 riments have tended to destroy this theory. The 
 simple fact appears to be, that powder exerts just so 
 much force, and, as it cannot escape sideways, it 
 must go out at the end of the barrel ; and that the 
 shape of the breech, except so far as it may affect 
 the rapidity of ignition, has no influence whatever. 
 
 These questions, however, are being effectually 
 disposed of by the march of events and the general 
 diffusion of breech-loaders ; to the latter, as they are 
 not universally known or appreciated in our country 
 to which, by its nature and its game, they are
 
 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 165 
 
 peculiarly adapted the writer's remarks will be 
 mainly confined. Feeling entirely convinced, even 
 from a short experience, of their superiority in most 
 particulars, and their equality in all, he regards the 
 consequence as inevitable that they will utterly 
 supersede the old-fashioned fowling-piece; the few 
 defects that were originally alleged to exist in them 
 having been either removed or remedied, and the 
 supply of ammunition for them in this country 
 having become sufficient. They have won their 
 way slowly into public favor against the interested 
 opposition of gun-makers on one hand, and the igno- 
 rance and superstitious dread of change of gun-users 
 on the other. 
 
 They are a French invention of forty years' 
 standing, and proved their superiority long ago ; 
 but prejudice was too strong for them, as it has been 
 for many another good thing. Their merits, never- 
 theless, slowly conquered opposition, convinced the 
 intelligent, and confounded the obstinate; till at 
 last in England the very hot-bed of prejudice and 
 the favorite abiding-place of antiquated ideas there 
 are now sold fifty breech-loaders to one muzzier 
 loader. As they are not universally used with us, 
 the description of them will have to be somewhat 
 minute, and would be better understood if the reader 
 would take the trouble to examine one for himself. 
 
 The best and most generally adopted of the vari- 
 ous kinds is the Lefaucheux, or some slight modi- 
 fication of it; and to that the attention will be prin- 
 cipally directed. In this gun the breech, which in
 
 166 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 
 
 the muzzle-loader screws into the barrel, is omitted, 
 and the barrels are open at both ends; they are 
 fastened to the stock by a pin and joint a few inches 
 beyond the guard. When free, the muzzle hangs 
 down, and the breech end presents itself several 
 inches above the stock, so that the cartridge can be 
 readily inserted ; when the barrels are pressed back 
 into their place for firing, they are caught by a bolt 
 that can be opened or closed by a lever lying along the 
 under part of the stock, between the guard and the 
 joint. The false breech is flat, solid, and heavy, and 
 completes the barrels, taking the place and perform- 
 ing the duty of the breech in the muzzle-loader. 
 The hammers have a flat surface on the striking end, 
 and the locks are back-actioned, to avoid interfering 
 with the other mechanism. 
 
 The pin cartridge is made of paper, shaped like a 
 short section of the barrel, with a brass capsule on 
 one end and open at the other; it is two or three 
 inches long, and has a pad of thick paper beneath 
 the capsule. In this pad a hole is punched on the 
 inside and the percussion-cap is inserted, with a 
 brass pin resting in it and projecting above the cap- 
 sule on the outside. The percussion-cap is entirely 
 within the cartridge-case, and the brass pin passes 
 through a hole drilled in one side of the capsule, 
 just large enough to admit it and exclude moisture 
 entirely. A blow on the projecting end of the pin 
 drives the other end into the cap, and discharges the 
 latter. The cartridge-case is prepared already 
 capped, and is sold in England for from thirty to
 
 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 167 
 
 fifty shillings the thousand ; it may be recapped by 
 an instrument made for the purpose with, a peculiar 
 cap, and may be used, on an average, three times. 
 
 The cartridge must be loaded as the gun would 
 be, only by the use of a short ramrod or a special 
 loading implement ; the powder is poured in, a wad 
 placed above it, and the shot and another wad follow. 
 The cartridge may then be trimmed down and the 
 end bent over, so as to retain the load securely, if it 
 is to be carried for a considerable distance ; but 
 where the shooting is from a boat or stand, the case 
 should be left untrimmed and of full length. A 
 chamber is cut away in the lower part of the barrel, 
 which corresponds exactly with the cartridge-case, 
 so that the latter fits perfectly in it ; but, if there is 
 an interval between the end of the cartridge and the 
 shoulder in the barrel, no injury to the charge or the 
 shooting appears to result. A small notch is cut in 
 the upper edge of the barrel to contain the brass pin, 
 and allow it to project so as to receive the blow from 
 the hammer. 
 
 When the bolt is withdrawn and the barrels are 
 allowed to fall so as to bring the open breech fairly 
 into view, the loaded cartridge is inserted, the bar- 
 rels are sprung back to their place with a sharp snap 
 that sends them home at once, and are ready to be 
 discharged. To allow the cartridge to be inserted, 
 the hammers must be drawn to half or full cock; 
 and when the trigger is pulled, they fall upon the 
 pin, which penetrates the cap and fires the load. 
 The entire mechanism is so simple that it can hardly
 
 168 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 
 
 become deranged, and will last as long as the bar 
 rels. The greatest care is necessary in making the 
 chamber that receives the cartridge of a proper 
 shape, for if this is faulty the cartridges are apt to 
 stick after explosion. 
 
 There is no decided improvement on the original 
 Lefaucheux model, except in the modification of the 
 machinery, and a convenient method of separating 
 the barrels from the stock ; and no other innovation 
 of a like character need be particularly described. 
 The needle-gun, which is made on a somewhat 
 similar principle, is more curious than valuable, 
 being both dangerous and complicated, and pos- 
 sesses no advantages over the other pattern. In it 
 the cartridge has a percussion-cap so disposed at its 
 base that it is penetrated by a needle, which is pro- 
 jected by a spring through a hole in the lower end 
 of the cartridge ; but the composition of the cartridge, 
 and the manner of its insertion, are altogether dif- 
 ferent from the same in the Lefaucheux gun. 
 
 According to the arrangement of some English 
 guns, on a plan invented by Jeffries, the lever, 
 instead of closing forward, lies under the trigger- 
 guard, when the barrels are closed ; and provision 
 is made for tightening the bolt, in case it wears loose 
 by long usage. This invention permits of the use 
 of forward-action locks, and the easy separation of 
 the barrels from the stock, and has come into vogue 
 in England; it is undoubtedly convenient in both 
 these particulars, and has as yet developed no cor- 
 responding drawbacks.
 
 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 169 
 
 Persoually, the writer has always preferred British 
 to French or Belgian guns, although chance has 
 compelled him to own as many of the latter as the 
 former. The English gun is made for work ; even 
 when cheaply manufactured, it will be found effec- 
 tive where efficiency is necessary ; and it is far more 
 beautiful to the eye of a true sportsman, with it a 
 plain blued lock-plates, and total deficiency of orna- 
 ment, than the Continental weapon, covered with 
 engraving and ornamentation, but defective in some 
 of those minutiae that lend nothing to its beauty, 
 but add much to its usefulness. This is particularly 
 the case with breech-loaders, which, if not manu- 
 factured carefully, are almost useless, and which, 
 although originally invented in France, are at this 
 day produced in more serviceable style unless 
 where the highest-priced article is obtained in Eng- 
 land than in the country of their origin. Great dis- 
 credit was brought upon breech-loaders among us at 
 their first introduction, in consequence of the impor- 
 tation of inferior articles, and they still labor under 
 the disadvantages of that failure, although rapidly 
 overcoming all objections. 
 
 There are a few implements that are necessary to 
 the use of a breech-loader, which are much simpler 
 than they at first appear. To load the cartridge is 
 required either a short ramrod and a machine for 
 turning over the edges of the case upon the wad, to 
 retain it in its place, or an apparatus, also invented 
 by Jeffries, that combines all the requisites for load- 
 ing, and by the aid of which a hundred cartridges
 
 170 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 
 
 can be loaded in an hour. As the case can be used 
 several times, and the cap, which is of a peculiar 
 size, has to be placed in its exact position to receive 
 the pin, a capper invented for the purpose is em- 
 ployed, by which the cap is inserted, and the pin 
 pressed into it without the least difficulty; a pair 
 of tweezers are used to withdraw the pin after a 
 discharge, in order to free the old cap and make 
 room for the new, and a large gimlet will be found 
 useful for extracting any discharged caps that may 
 happen to stick. 
 
 A cleaning-apparatus is also occasionally used, 
 consisting of a brush at one end of a string and a 
 small weight at the other ; the weight is dropped 
 through the open barrel and the brush drawn after 
 it ; but, as the gun may be fired ten times as often 
 as a muzzle-loader without fouling, a plain rag and 
 cleaning-rod will answer. Cartridge-cases, of 
 course, cannot be obtained like powder and shot 
 at every country store, and to obviate the danger 
 of finding oneself, after extraordinary good-luck 
 with a gun, without the means of firing it, it is 
 well to carry a couple of brass cases, which can be 
 used with a common French cap, and reloaded in- 
 definitely almost as quickly as a muzzle-loader. 
 
 The sportsman, by the aid of these implements 
 and a couple of scoops with handles for powder 
 and shot, recaps the cartridges which have been 
 discharged, loads them as he would a gun, only 
 much more rapidly, and lays them aside for future 
 use. In the field, he carries them in a leather case,
 
 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 171 
 
 or, which is the preferable plan, in a belt round the 
 waist, or in his pockets, being able to store in the 
 pockets of his vest alone at least twenty. The 
 English sportsmen carry them loose in the pockets 
 of their shooting-coats ; but a belt is convenient and 
 commodious, holding from thirty to fifty, and dis- 
 tributes the weight pleasantly. Where the shoot- 
 ing is to be done from a boat or stand, of course 
 they will be kept in an ammunition-box, without 
 having their edges turned over, as there will be 
 nothing to loosen the wads. 
 
 The reader may naturally suppose that there is 
 risk in carrying a number of loaded cartridges about 
 the person ; but in this he is entirely mistaken. In 
 the first place, the difficulty of discharging a car- 
 tridge, except in the gun, is surprising ; no pressure 
 will explode the cap, and no ordinary blow, unless 
 the cartridge is retained in a fixed position ; and if 
 one falls, the weight of the shot compels it inevi- 
 tably to fall on the end : but in case these difficulties 
 are overcome, the result is merely the discharge of 
 a large fire-cracker. 
 
 The writer instituted a number of experiments, 
 and having succeeded, after many trials, in setting 
 off the cartridge, found that the powder burst the 
 paper, but failed to drive the wad out of the case. 
 This was tried with cartridges in all positions, hori- 
 zontal and perpendicular, but produced invariably 
 the same result, with unimportant modifications; 
 and it was further ascertained that the fire from one 
 would not communicate to another. So that, if a
 
 172 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH LOADERS. 
 
 cartridge does explode accidentally, it may scorch 
 the clothes or even burn the person slightly, but 
 can inflict no serious injury. These remarks, how- 
 ever, do not apply to the brass cartridge-cases, 
 which must be handled more carefully. The com- 
 mon paper-cases may therefore be carried with per- 
 fect impunity, and transported, if carefully packed, 
 without risk. 
 
 A more curious idea for the dread of danger 
 from the loaded cartridge is natural prevailed .at 
 one time, that the barrels were weakened because 
 they were open behind, instead of being closed by 
 the breech-screw ; as if a cylinder would be rendered 
 more cohesive by screwing another piece of metal 
 into one end. In fact, if the breech-screw has any 
 effect whatever upon the strength of the gun. its 
 presence is probably an injury. The charge, it will 
 be observed, presses against the shot on one side 
 and the false breech on the other, and would not be 
 retained any more securely by the addition of a 
 breech-screw, which tends to separate instead of 
 closing the barrel. So, also, it must be borne iu 
 mind there is no strain worth mentioning on the 
 hinge-bolt, and no danger of the barrels blowing 
 away with the charge ; while the disposal of the 
 metal at the false breech, and the omission of the 
 ramrod, tends to make the gun light at the muzzle 
 a great advantage in snap-shooting. 
 
 There is absolutely no escape of gas at the break- 
 off ; none can escape unless the brass capsule, which 
 closes the joint hermetically, can be driven out, and
 
 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 173 
 
 this is a sheer impossibility. The gas cannot pene- 
 trate the paper of the cartridge, and if it bursts the 
 latter, still cannot escape except through the brass ; 
 and although the least perceptible amount may come 
 out alongside of the pin, it is scarcely traceable, and 
 nothing like what is lost at the percussion-cap in the 
 common gun. These cartridges are wonderfully 
 close, as the reader may conclude when he is in- 
 formed that a loaded breech-loader, left entirely 
 under water for fifteen minutes, was discharged as 
 promptly as though it had never been wet ; while a 
 muzzle-loader, that had not been half so long ex- 
 posed, would not go at all, and required, an hour's 
 cleaning. In fact, the breech-loader is entirely im- 
 pervious to any ordinary wetting, will not fail in 
 the worst rain, and the average number of miss-fires, 
 in well made cartridges, is one in a thousand. 
 
 In the handling of this gun there is one peculi- 
 arity: the pins rise from the middle of the car- 
 tridge, and not at one side, like the ordinary cones, 
 thus bringing the hammers closer together. To the 
 beginner this may appear awkward, but is no real 
 disadvantage. It would seem also desirable to use 
 more powder with a breech-loader, although this is 
 not necessary to so great an extent as it was for- 
 merly ; but, on the other hand, the weight at the 
 breech appears either to diminish the recoil or reduce 
 its effects on the shooter ; as the testimony of persons 
 using breach-loaders is unanimous that the recoil is 
 less perceptible than with muzzle-loaders, although 
 the scales have refused to verify their impression.
 
 174 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 
 
 One immense advantage of the breech-loader is 
 its safety in loading, especially in a confined posi- 
 tion, as on a boat or in a battery. Whereas, in 
 the muzzle-loader, immediately after the discharge, 
 while the smoke is still pouring from the barrel, and 
 while the fire may be smouldering invisible below, 
 the sportsman deliberately pours in a fresh charge 
 of powder, holding his hand and the entire flask 
 over the muzzle, endangering Ids life, and incurring 
 injury far more frequently than most persons sup- 
 pose ; with the breech-loader, the barrels are opened 
 and fall into such a position that no discharge can 
 take place, and never point towards the person of 
 their owner. 
 
 Several of the writer's friends have been maimed 
 for life by the premature discharge of a load in the 
 muzzle-loader from a spark remaining in the barrel ; 
 the risk connected with it has always seemed very 
 great ; and even with the patent flasks, which are 
 hardly practical inventions, more or less unavoid- 
 able. This danger is entirely obviated by the breech- 
 loader, which cannot go off until the barrels are 
 restored to position after the charges are inserted ; 
 cannot leave hidden sparks to imperil the owner's 
 life or limb ; never expose the hand over the 
 loaded barrel, that may have been left at half-cock, 
 if the sportsman is liable to thoughtlessness or 
 over-excitement ; and which can be loaded without 
 difficulty in the most confined position. So, not 
 only do we have rapidity, but entire safety in load- 
 ing.
 
 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 17? 
 
 The objections, however, urged against breech- 
 loaders have not been few, and, if well founded, 
 forbid the use of the gun ; if, as has been said, the 
 target is not so good, nor the shot sent with as 
 much force, the requisites of a first-class sporting 
 impiement are wanting. These charges, freely ad- 
 vanced, have been sustained in a measure by the 
 wretched performance of poor guns, but were early 
 been brought to the only true test actual experi- 
 ence, under equal conditions ; and by this test have 
 been so utterly annihilated that their discussion is 
 only necessary on account of popular ignorance of 
 the experiments. When breech-loaders first came 
 prominently before the English public, their sup- 
 posed merits and demerits were discussed in the 
 sporting papers in an animated and violent manner ; 
 and in order to settle the questions at issue, the 
 editor of the London Field determined to have an 
 open trial, where the breech-loaders and muzzle- 
 loaders could be fairly matched against one another. 
 The contests took place in 1858 and 1859, and being 
 carefully conducted, settled the dispute for the time 
 being, and, even before the latest improvements, 
 established more fully the superiority of the breech- 
 loader. The best guns and gun-makers of England 
 were represented ; and in spite of occasional varia- 
 tion and accidental luck as in the pattern of the 
 first muzzle-loader the prejudices against the mo- 
 dern arm were so entirely dissipated that the old- 
 fashioned guns are at present rarely sold. 
 
 Since that trial considerable advance has been
 
 178 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADER^. 
 
 made in the minutiae of the manufacture ; and now 
 it is the general impression of those acquainted with 
 the arm, that the breech-loader, with a slight addi- 
 tional increase of powder, shoots both stronger and 
 closer than its rival. In the pigeon-matches, with 
 scarcely an exception, held both in this country, of 
 late years, as well as in Great Britain, where it is 
 to be supposed that the best implements the country 
 could furnish would be used, and where some of 
 the shooting was done at thirty yards, the favorite 
 and most successful weapons have been breech- 
 loaders. With all allowance for the quality of the 
 marksman, the quality of the gun that wins a match 
 at English ''blue-rocks" must unquestionably be 
 good ; and this, the universal experience of those 
 matter-of-fact John Bulls, who test everything by 
 success, has entirely confirmed. 
 
 A trial of guns was made in 1859, and the results 
 were published in tabular form in The Shot-Gun 
 and Sporting Rifle, by Stonehenge, p. 304. The 
 targets were made of double bag-cap paper, 90 Ibs. 
 to the ream, circular, thirty inches in diameter, with 
 a centre of twelve inches square, and were nailed 
 against a smooth surface of deal boards. The centres 
 were composed of forty thicknesses for forty yards, 
 and twenty for sixty yards, and weighed eighteen 
 and nine ounces respectively, with such slight varia- 
 tion as will always occur in brown paper. The 
 powder was Laurence's No. 2, the shot No. 6, con- 
 taining 290 pellets to the ounce, and the charges 
 were weighed in every instance.
 
 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 179 
 
 1 
 
 W ' : * 2^ K g 
 
 S g 3 g S g 
 S N*. e. 
 
 f s r t r s ; TT r ; s s ?. 
 
 o* 0*2 o" 5" o" 
 
 
 Kind of Gun. 
 
 
 
 *cototocooso-. to cococotococoicto to 
 
 
 Bore. 
 
 
 
 l2lgl gggggggg 
 
 ? 
 
 Length of 
 Barrel. 
 
 
 
 bo if* i(^ oo *^ *. iti t-* ' oo toccboca i- 1 
 
 O t^-O l-i 
 
 !, b z ; 
 
 Weight of 
 Gun. 
 
 CO 
 
 f 
 
 
 co co co eo co to co to to co to eo co eo to to to 
 ^\ it^ .\ i\ "\ " 
 
 
 
 Charge of 
 Powder. 
 
 (73 
 
 
 (* 
 
 s 
 
 Charse of 
 Shot. 
 
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 b=l 
 
 s 
 
 09 
 
 ca^oooeo icoo icai ^cootf^i itf^ m 
 
 1 
 
 g = 
 
 H3 
 
 S 
 
 00 1 -C;iOtCO COW COCOOtSCO S 
 
 g 1 
 
 
 
 o - 
 
 W 
 
 tel 
 
 8 
 
 co to co eo co to en co to to *. o> o> co *. o> o 
 
 l-i -1 tO H- fcO CH *- *- -4 W tO 01 tO CO 
 
 1 
 
 ll 
 
 
 6 
 
 *- tO tO 10 *>. CO CO ^J,-iO5COOOtl&.05 Ci 
 
 ooo oootoii-' a* C/-KJJOOOI o 
 
 0. 
 
 sr 
 
 
 
 
 tO tO tO CO tO CO tC tO tO c tO tC 1C to re tO tO 
 
 cno.^cotoooto c;<oooife>aoCKco oo 
 
 
 
 fgas 
 
 G 
 
 
 
 to eo to to to *- to co co eo co co eo co to to eo 
 co I-L -M ex a> -< to if- o i co >-! o oo to co 
 
 1 
 
 |la 
 
 H 
 g 
 
 HI 
 
 Ol-tOOOOtOO O O *k. tO bO O l-i M CX 
 
 1 
 
 If** 
 
 B*O " O 
 
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 gi 
 
 2.W 5 o 
 STsr 
 
 tr 1 
 
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 10 1C bO tO tO tO tO tO re tO CO CO CO CO CO CO 
 
 
 Total on face 
 of 4 targets. 
 
 
 3 
 
 1^ C^ C2^ ^T 4^ "^ ^- -' C^Ci^JOiCiCiCKCH O 
 
 55 to tb x co to *. oo to oo n* 1-1 o & co oo 
 
 
 Tot'l thro'gh 
 4 targets. 
 
 
 S 
 
 2S23$gfs 88|3_|8S S 
 
 
 sS 
 
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 B 
 
 
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 SS382|2 8g|s'jlg 8 
 
 

 
 180 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 
 
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 COCO^OCOt COCOO 
 
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 r-i en o co MI =v c<> a 
 
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 CO&IIM CO <N CO <M IM OB CO CO CM 
 
 K3MIMI CO Ml O "O * 1O MHO 
 
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 M
 
 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 181 
 
 The guns were classified according to their weight. 
 The breech-loaders, which used one quarter of a 
 drachm more powder, showed about an equal re- 
 coil ; the recoil differed surprisingly, ranging from 
 44 to 76 Ibs., and was no indication of the power 
 with which the shot w^s driven a greater number 
 of sheets being pierced where the recoil was under 
 the average. The patterns produced by the muzzle- 
 loaders varied from those of the breech-loaders less 
 than they did from one another, and far less than 
 that of one barrel differed from that of the other ; in 
 fact, the right-hand barrel seems to have shot much 
 the best, and some of the guns that excelled at 40 
 yards fell far behindhand at 60 yards. 
 
 In penetration, which is a more valuable quality 
 in a gun than even pattern, the breech-loaders took 
 the lead; one pierced through 40 sheets and another 
 through 39 sheets, so that the vaunted superiority 
 of the old gun in this particular was found not to 
 exist. It was further noted that a great improve- 
 ment in this particular had taken place in the breech- 
 loaders since the trial of the year previous, which 
 improvement has been going on steadily since. The 
 trial also proved that, although the breech-loaders 
 required an extra amount of powder to give them 
 force, it caused in them no additional recoil, and 
 was objectionable in so far only as it entailed extra 
 expense and weight of ammunition. The muzzle- 
 loader was left, to offset its numerous inferiorities, 
 nothing more than a claim to diminished weight of 
 gun and ammunition, and a trifling saving in ex-
 
 182 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 
 
 pense; in force and pattern it was equalled; in 
 safety and liandiness it was far surpassed by its 
 competitor. 
 
 These trials were continued afterwards, but none 
 were or could be more conclusive than the first 
 which I have given, and there is no need of 
 troubling the reader with them. Indeed, it would 
 almost seem unnecessary to give time and space to 
 the consideration of the superiorities of breech- 
 loaders over muzzle-loaders at this day, so univer- 
 sally are the former accepted in the better informed 
 localities, but in so extensive a country as ours, 
 there are parts which are late to learn and hard 
 to be convinced. To-day, while the muzzle-loader 
 has nearly disappeared from the Northern and Eas- 
 tern States, it still holds its own in the South and 
 far West, and there are at present as many of them 
 in service throughout the length and breadth of 
 our land, as there are of breech-loaders. 
 
 One change that was early made in the cartridges 
 was to do away with the pin and substitute a central 
 fire, and so much was this change admired, that 
 pin-fire guns have almost gone out of use. Never- 
 theless, I have never been convinced that this was 
 any improvement, and believe, that if the pin-fire 
 gun had come into general use before it was intro- 
 duced, it would not have been accepted. However, 
 admitted facts cannot be ignored, and to-day the 
 pin-fire system has been almost as fully and far less 
 intelligently relegated to the past, as the muzzle- 
 loader itself. I am also 110 admirer of the snap-
 
 MUZZLE-LOADERS AHD BREECH-LOADERS. 183 
 
 action, which has to a certain extent been substi- 
 tuted for the lever, on the ground that, while the 
 lever never gets out of order, the spring of the snap 
 often breaks. I may say, that no guns could have 
 been more severely tried than mine that were manu- 
 factured by Lefaucheux, one of which was the second 
 that was ever permanently used in this country, 
 and that they have never given out in their working 
 parts, while the oldest and most hardly used has 
 never given out at all, although shot in all weathers 
 and under very trying circumstances. 
 
 Indeed I go farther and insist that there have 
 been no important improvements made in breech- 
 loaders since the original Lcfauclieux pattern until 
 the introduction of the hammerless guns. These 
 are still imperfect, but they will probably be soon 
 perfected, so that the last serious danger from a 
 breech-loader will be removed, that of premature 
 discharge in the field. Were it not for this discov- 
 ery, it is my belief that sportsmen would yet give 
 up the central-fire, and return to the pin-fire, there 
 being no advantages in a central fire, while there are 
 several disadvantages. The principal of these con- 
 sists in the fact that no one can tell whether it is 
 loaded or not, and a secondary danger lies in the 
 loading of the cartridges, which has already cost 
 several lives. As yet, however, the hammerless gun 
 is not entirely safe. It is thrown back to full cock 
 in opening, and when closed with a hard snap it 
 will sometimes jar off. This happens very rarely, 
 but often enough to make the gun dangerous.
 
 184 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADEBS. 
 
 It will foul about the working parts of the breech 
 when it is used hard without cleaning, so that the 
 springs will not act, and a premature discharge may 
 follow, and it sometimes catches on the edge of the 
 bent in the tumbler without slipping into it. As 
 soon as these defects are absolutely remedied, the 
 graceful and convenient hammerless gun will take 
 the place of all others. I know very well it is claimed 
 that these, and all other defects have been removed 
 by the introduction of the safety block, which in- 
 terposes before the tumbler, and thus between the 
 strikers and the cap, and I do not intend to enter 
 into an argument which would lead to no practical 
 result. There are men ever ready to take certain 
 risks in order to be ahead of their fellows. Let such 
 disregard the advice, which common sense suggests, 
 and make experiments, from which they cannot be 
 dissuaded, and by which others may profit. I would, 
 however, say that I am sustained in my objections 
 by so high an authority, as "Stonehenge," but am. 
 willing to admit that even as they are, I think a 
 hammerless gun is safer than a central fire, for they 
 avoid one of the greatest risks which the sportsman 
 runs, that of the trigger catching on a twig as he is 
 going through the bushes. Those who have used 
 them sufficiently to get accustomed to them, say 
 that they can shoot better with them than with the 
 old gun, a fact which they attribute to the absence 
 of the hammers.
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 THE various writers on the different kinds of sport 
 in our country have generally devoted their atten- 
 tion to upland shooting ; to the quail, woodcock, 
 English snipe, ruffed grouse of the hills, dales, and 
 meadows, to the prairie-chicken of the far west, or to 
 the larger game the ducks, geese, and swans of our 
 coast; and the few suggestions to be found in 
 Frank Forester's Field Sports, or Lewis's Ame- 
 rican /Sportsman, are of little assistance in discuss- 
 ing the mode of captm*e of their less fashionable 
 and less marketable brethren called bay-snipe. 
 I shall inevitably make mistakes and omissions. 
 The later works on water-fowl shooting are limited 
 to the consideration of ducks, geese, and brant, 
 as though bay snipe belonged to the upland. But 
 I consider them nearly as much of a water-bird as 
 the black duck, for, like the latter, they are shot 
 mostly at pond holes in the marshes or from sedgy 
 points. 
 
 The birds that are shot along our shores upon the 
 sand-bars or broad salt meadows, or even upon the 
 adjoining fields of upland, are among sportsmen 
 termed bay-birds or bay-snipe; and although includ- 
 ing several distinct varieties, present a general 
 similarity in manners and habits. They are ordi-
 
 186 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 nirily killed by stratagem over decoys, and not by 
 open pursuit ; different varieties frequent the same 
 locality, so that many species will be collected in the 
 same bag ; they are for the most part, except the 
 upland birds, tough and sedgy, and at times hardly 
 fit for the table ; and they arrive and may be killed 
 at certain periods in vast numbers. 
 
 Although despised by the upland sportsman, who 
 regards the use of the dog as essential to the pure 
 exercise of his art ; and by the pot-hunter, because 
 they do not generally bring high prices in market ; 
 to the genuine lover- of nature and the gun they fur- 
 nish splendid sport, requiring, if not as high a de- 
 gree of skill as may be needed to cut down a quail 
 in the dense coverts, at least as many fine qualities 
 in the sportsman, and as thorough a knowledge of 
 their habits as any other bird. In upland shooting 
 the dog does the largest part of the work, and inva- 
 riably deserves the credit for a super-excellent bag; 
 and truly glorious is it to follow the dog that can 
 make that bag, and wonderful to watch his powers ; 
 but in bay-snipe shooting there is no trusty dog to 
 look to, who can retrieve by his superiority his mas- 
 ter's blunderings. The man relies upon himself, and 
 himself alone ; he it is that must, with quick observant 
 eye, catch the faint outline of the distant flock, and 
 with sharp ear distinguish the first audible call; his 
 experience must determine the nature of the birds, 
 his powers of imitation bring them within gun-shot, 
 and his skill drop them advantageously from the 
 crowded flock. To excel in all this requires long
 
 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 18? 
 
 patience, much experience, and great qualities of 
 mind and body ; and few are the sportsmen who ever 
 deserve the compliment paid by old Paulus Enos of 
 Quogue, when he remarked, " Colonel P. is a werry 
 destructive man a werry destructive man in a flock 
 of birds." 
 
 It is true that quail-shooting is almost a certainty ; 
 and day after day of fair weather, with well-trained 
 animals and good marksmen, will produce nearly the 
 same average, so that an entire failure will be almost 
 impossible ; whereas, with bay-snipe everything, in 
 the first instance, depends upon the flight ; and if 
 there are no birds, the result must be a total blank ; 
 but when the season is propitious and this can be 
 determined by the experienced sportsman with tole- 
 rable accuracy the sport is prodigious, and the 
 number of shots enormous. 
 
 Nor is it so easy to kill the gentle game that 
 approaches the decoys with such entire confidence, 
 and often at so moderate a pace. The upland sports- 
 man, who can cover the quail through the thick 
 scrub-oaks, or the woodcock in the dense foliage of 
 the shady swamp, and send his charge after them 
 with astonishing precision, and who will expect easy 
 work with the bay-snipe, will find himself wonder- 
 fully bothered by their curious motions and irre- 
 gular flight, till he has acquired the knack of anti- 
 cipating their intentions. He will learn that their 
 .^Jed is irregular; that while at times they will 
 hang almost motionless in the air, at others they will 
 dart past at the rate of a hundred miles an hour;
 
 188 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 that although usually flying steadily, they will fre- 
 quently flirt and twist as unexpectedly as an English 
 snipe ; and that often they will either suddenly drop 
 from before his gun and alight, or, taking the alarm, 
 will whirl fifty feet into the air ; and when one 
 barrel has been discharged into a flock, the rest, will 
 " skiver " so as to puzzle even the best marksman. 
 It is not enough to kill one bird with each bar- 
 rel from a flock, as in quail-shooting, but a num- 
 ber must be selected at the moment they cross one 
 another, so that several may be secured with each 
 barrel ; to do this will require much practice and 
 entail many total misses, and is rarely thoroughly 
 learned by the upland sportsman. It will not answer 
 to follow the example of an enthusiastic French gen- 
 tleman, whom I once left in the stand while I went 
 to the house for dinner ; and who, on my return, in 
 an excited way remarked : 
 
 " Ah ! I have vun beautifool shot, I make ze lovely 
 shot ; tree big birds come along vat you call him ?" 
 
 " Willet ?" I suggested. 
 
 " No, no ; ze big brown birds." 
 
 "Sickle-bills!" 
 
 " No, not ze seeckle-bills." 
 
 " Jacks ?" 
 
 " No, no ; not ze jacks." 
 
 " Marlin !" 
 
 " Yes, yes ; tree big marlin come close by, right 
 ovair ze stool ; zay all fly near ze other ; I am sure 
 to kill zem, it was such beautifool shot. I take ze 
 gun and miss zem all 1"
 
 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 189 
 
 IVlot-eovei, the excitement of a rapid flight is 
 intense ; the birds arrive much faster than the muz- 
 zle-loader cau be charged, andaflock will hover round 
 the stand, returning again and again in the most 
 bewildering manner ; as there are usually two sports- 
 men in each stand, and the stands are often in sight 
 of" one another, a sense of rivalry is added to the 
 other difficulties of the position. 
 
 As the birds approach, great judgment is required 
 in selecting the proper time to fire, both as regards 
 the condition of the flock and their position relative 
 TO the associate sportsman ; they must be allowed 
 to come well within the reach of both, and yet be 
 taKen when they are most together, and not allowed 
 to pass so far as to endanger the success of the se- 
 cond barrel. Each sportsman must invariably fire 
 at his side of the flock, and wait till it is well abreast 
 of him, and never either shoot over his neighbor's 
 corner of the stand or at his portion of the birds. 
 Nothing is so disagreeable as to have a gun dis- 
 charged close to one's head, except perhaps to have 
 it discharged at one's head ; the noise and jar pro- 
 duce painful and dangerous effects, and unsettle a 
 person's nerves for hours. No man who will fire 
 by his associate without presenting his gun well be- 
 fore him, can know the first principles of gunnery 
 or who, if knowing them, wilfully disregards their 
 effects, is a fit companion. The concussion from the 
 explosion is exceedingly unpleasant, even if the gun 
 is several feet off, and will produce a slight deafness. 
 
 Of the number of birds which can be bagged, it
 
 190 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 is hardly possible to speak within bounds more than 
 a hundred having been killed at one shot but pro- 
 bably a hundred separate shots are occasionally fired 
 by each sportsman in the course of a day, and with 
 the breech-loader even more. There have been times 
 when twenty-five pounds of shot have been expend- 
 ed by one gun, but those days exist no longer, and 
 it is rare to use more than five pounds where the 
 load does not exceed an ounce and a quarter. 
 
 The uncertainty of the flight is the principal draw- 
 back to bay-snipe shooting, although experience can 
 in a measure overcome the difficulty; but to the 
 citizen confined to certain days, a selection of time 
 is an impossibility. The height of the season ex- 
 tends from August 15th to the 25th for the bay- 
 birds proper ; and from August 28th to September 
 8th, for golden plover; and if a north-easterly storm 
 should occur at this period, it will be followed by an 
 immense flight. 
 
 Dry seasons are never good, and so long as the 
 weather remains warm the birds will tarry in their 
 northern latitudes ; when the meadows are parched 
 for want of rain, they become too hard for the birds 
 to perforate, and the latter, being unable to feed, 
 must migrate elsewhere; but when thev are soft 
 
 O / / 
 
 with moisture, the older snipe that have left their 
 progeny at the far north, linger on the feeding- 
 grounds and wait for the latter to arrive. They 
 seem to make it a point to send back portions of 
 their number from time to time to look after the young ; 
 and on such occasions, both the messengers and the
 
 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING 191 
 
 young stool admirably. Thus flocks of old birds 
 will frequently be seen wending their way towards 
 the north, while the main flight is directed south- 
 ward ; and these flocks will invariably come to the 
 decoys, although the main body will take no notice 
 of them. 
 
 Of course when the meadows are too parched to 
 furnish food, the birds cannot return on their tracks, 
 but must continue their flight to more hospitable 
 shores, and in this way one of the best chances for 
 good shooting is lost. There are probably, in addi- 
 tion, many ease-loving gluttons among the troupe, who 
 if they find the feeding-grounds well supplied, slop 
 for a time to enjoy the luxury after their long absti- 
 nence in the inclement north ; and in passing to and 
 from their favorite spots, are said by the native 
 human species to have established " a trade" to those 
 places. These birds, of course, wherever they see a 
 flock apparently partaking of a plentiful repast, na- 
 turally pause to obtain their share, and thus fall a 
 prey to their appetites. 
 
 Bay-snipe fly during the day and night high up 
 in the heavens, or close to the earth, in rain or shine, 
 but especially during a cold north-easterly storm, 
 which, from its direction, is favorable to their south- 
 erly migrations ; and they have a vigor of wing that 
 enables them to traverse immense distances in a 
 short time. In proceeding with the wind, it is usu- 
 ally at a considerable distance from the earth ; but 
 when facing an adverse current, they keep close to 
 the surface, and consequently are apt to be attracted
 
 192 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 by the stools. They do not move much during 
 foggy weather, for the simple reason that they can- 
 not see their course, but do not seem to be troubled 
 by a rain. Although clear that is to say, not rainy 
 weather is preferable on many accounts, for their 
 pursuit, good sport is frequently had, especially on 
 Long Island, during a rain. 
 
 Their line of flight is peculiar. Except the plover, 
 they do not follow the entire coast, and are not 
 found to the eastward of Massachusetts, but appear 
 to strike directly from their northern haunts to Cape 
 Cod, where, in the neighborhood of Barnstable, 
 there was in former times excellent shooting ; thence 
 they proceed to Point Judith, or even somewhat to 
 the westward of it, and then they cross Long Island 
 Sound, rarely much to the eastward of Quogue ; from 
 Long Island they make one flight to Squan Beach, 
 and so on along the bays and lagoons of the south- 
 ern coast to the Equator, or perhaps beyond it to 
 the Antarctic region. The plovers follow the coast 
 more closely, and strike the easternmost end of Long 
 Island in their career. 
 
 It is very remarkable, that these birds which 
 generally pass northward in May, and require 
 only three months for incubation and growth of 
 young, live the other nine months apparently in com- 
 parative idleness at the south. This peculiarity has 
 led to the suggestion that they may travel to the 
 Antarctic ocean during their absence from the north 
 which, although probable, is as yet, from our entire 
 ignorance of their habits, a mere suggestion.
 
 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 193 
 
 During the northward flight in May, there is often 
 good sport, but the time is more uncertain than in 
 August; nor do the birds, which are old and wary, 
 stool quite so well as on their return. In the spring 
 they pursue the same course as in the autumnal 
 flight ; which, although it is the most direct line, and 
 follows the principal expanse of salt meadow, neces- 
 sitates considerable journeys far out at sea. But it 
 is doubtless the fact that these birds, in consequence 
 of their stretch and power of wing, could sustain an 
 unbroken flight from north to south, and accomplish 
 the distance in a wonderfully short space of time. 
 Unabated speed of one hundred miles an hour is 
 equivalent to twenty-four hundred miles in a day, 
 and portions of the flock may not pause between 
 Labrador and the swamps of Florida. 
 
 When the wind is strong and continuous from the 
 westward, it is supposed that they pass far out to 
 sea ; and during these seasons there will be no flight 
 of birds either at Long Island or on the Jersey coast. 
 At such periods sportsmen often conclude that the 
 entire race has been destroyed, till the easterly winds 
 and soaking rains of the following year, bring them, 
 back more numerous than ever. As they must 
 migrate, and are not to be found anywhere on the 
 land, it is clear that they must have the power of 
 completing their journey in one unbroken flight. 
 
 The principal varieties are the sickle-bill, jack-cur- 
 lew, the marliu and ring-tailed marlin, the willet, the 
 black-breast or bull-head, and golden plovers, the 
 yelper, yellow-legs, robin-snipe, dowitchers, brant-
 
 194 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 bird, and krieker. The upland or grass-plover is pur- 
 sued in a different manner, and the smaller birds are 
 not pursued for sport at all. 
 
 The sickle-bills, so named after the beautiful sweep- 
 ing curve of the bill, which lias been known to mea- 
 sure eleven inches in length, are the largest of them 
 all. They are colored much like a marlin, have a 
 beautiful bright eye, a short reed-like call, and n 
 steady, dignified flight. In stretch of wings they 
 exceed three feet, and nothing can be more impres- 
 sive than the approach of a large flock of these birds 
 with wings and bills extended and legs dropped in 
 preparation for alighting amid the stools. 
 
 They are often shy in the first instance, but as 
 soon as one of their number is killed, they return 
 again and again to the fatal spot apparently in blind 
 confidence that he must have alighted instead of 
 fallen, or out of brotherly anxiety for his fate. I 
 have on several occasions attracted a large flock that 
 was hesitating whether to approach or not, and 
 almost resolving to depart, by killing one of their 
 number that incautiously ventured within long 
 range for immediately on seeing him fall, they 
 approached, in spite of the report, with full con- 
 fidence. 
 
 They are easily killed, by reason of their mode- 
 rate speed and customary steadiness, although they 
 can dart rapidly when alarmed, and will often, like 
 all the bay-birds, carry off much shot. Their flesh 
 is tough, very dark, and scarcely fit for the table, 
 except perhaps when they first come on from feed-
 
 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 195 
 
 ing on the more dainty repasts furnished by the up- 
 lands of Labrador. 
 
 The jack-curlew is a still more wary bird, and al- 
 though he comes to the stools, rarely pauses over 
 them, and never returns after being once fired at. 
 He is seldom seen in large flocks, and flies rapidly 
 and steadily. His cry is longer than that of the 
 sickle-bill, and, like it, easy to imitate. From his 
 wariness and rarity he is regarded as the greatest 
 prize of the sportsman, although his flesh is little 
 better than that of the sickle-bill. 
 
 The marlin is quite common, very gentle, stools 
 admirably, and goes in large flocks. In color it is 
 similar to the sickle-bill, but it is much smaller and has 
 a straight, if not slightly recurved, bill. It is attracted 
 by the same call, and is equally tough and sedgy as 
 food. The ring-tailed marlin differs from it entirely 
 in color, resembling a willet except that its wings 
 are darker, and its tail black with a white ring but 
 it has the long, straight, marlin bill. It is a rare bird, 
 seldom collects in large flocks, and is often fat and 
 tolerable eating. It does not stool as well as its 
 plainer brother, but from its scarcity and higher 
 gastronomic claims, it is more highly prized. 
 
 The willet is greyish in general color, with a white 
 belly and broad bands of black and white across its 
 wings. It has a loud, shrill shriek, stools well, flies 
 steadily, congregates in large flocks, and when fat is 
 quite eatable. It often associates with marlins and 
 sickle-bills, where its light colors make a beautiful 
 contrast.
 
 196 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 The last four varieties are nearly similar in size 
 and greatly exceed the following, but are far less 
 desirable in an epicurean point of view. 
 
 The golden plover is one of the finest birds that 
 flies ; it associates in flocks of a tlunisand, stools well, 
 is extremely fat, is delicious on the table, and has a 
 peculiarly musical whistle. It frequents the uplands, 
 and feeds on grasshoppers. Its back is marked with 
 a greenish red that faintly resembles gold, and gives 
 rise to its name. The young are quite different in 
 plumage. 
 
 The black-breast or ball-head is a shy and rather 
 solitary bird although it occasionally collects in 
 large flocks but it is quite fat, and frequently killed 
 in the salt marshes over the stools used for the ordi- 
 nary bay-birds. 
 
 The yelper has a strong, rapid, and often irregular 
 flight, and a loud cry. It stools well, but escapes 
 rapidly as soon as shot at, darting from side to side- 
 in a confusing way, and returns less confidently than 
 the willet or marlin. It pursues its course generally 
 high in the clouds, whence it will drop like a stone 
 when coming to the stools. On Long Island it goes 
 by the name of big yellow-legs ; its call can be heard 
 at an immense distance, and is repeated continually 
 as it flies. Gastronomically considered, it is passa- 
 ble, and, when fat, really excellent. 
 
 The yellow-legs, or little yellow-legs, as it is 
 termed on Long Island, is similar in appearance to 
 the yelper, but has a softer and more flute-like note, 
 and congregates in larger flocks. It stools admi-
 
 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 197 
 
 rably, and is killed in immense numbers. Its flight 
 is rapid and irregular, especially when it is fright- 
 ened; and, as food, it ranks with the yelper. 
 
 The brant-bird is a beautiful bird, and stools well ; 
 it rarely consorts in large flocks, and is quite accept- 
 able on the table. 
 
 The robin-snipe is a graceful, beautiful, and deli- 
 cious bird; its favorite localities are the meadow- 
 islands of the salt bays and lagoons; its flight is 
 steady, and it does not collect in such immense flocks 
 as the last named variety. Its whistle consists of 
 two clear shrill notes, by which it is readily attracted ; 
 and its predominant colors are grey on the back and 
 red on the breast. 
 
 The dowitcher, which is considered ornithologi- 
 cally as the only true snipe of them all, has the 
 habits of the sandpiper and the distinctive attributes 
 of the scolopax; it is abundant, extremely gentle, 
 and excellent eating. It stools admirably, coming 
 to any whistle whatever ; and although it can skiver 
 when alarmed, it usually flies steadily. It associates 
 with the smaller birds. 
 
 The krieker feeds on the meadows, remains till 
 late in October, becomes extremely fat, and is an 
 epicurean delicacy ; it utters a creaking cry, but will 
 not stool at all. It also flies with the smaller snipe. 
 
 Having thus mentioned the peculiar distinctive 
 qualities and characteristics of each bird, of which a 
 fuller description will be given in another place, we 
 will now pass to a consideration of the best mode of 
 their pursuit. This being by stratagem, the more
 
 198 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 thorough the deception, the more favorable will be 
 the result ; and although they can frequently be 
 attracted by an accurate imitation of their call 
 within reach of their destroyer, crouched in the open 
 field and unaided by decoys, they will approach 
 much better to the concealed sportsman and well 
 made stools. A stand is usually erected near some 
 pond or bar where the birds are in the habit of 
 alighting and this can be built in half an hour of 
 bushes or roods high enough to conceal the sports- 
 man comfortably seated in his arm-chair ; and as the 
 grass has become by the latter part of August a dull 
 yellowish green, he may even shelter himself from 
 the sun's rays by a brown cotton umbrella, if he be 
 delicate or ease-loving. His clothes should assi- 
 milate to the color of the landscape, and be as cool as 
 possible for the temperature is often oppressively 
 hot ; and a waterproof should always be at hand in 
 case of rain, to cover, not so much the sportsman 
 as his gun and ammunition, which may be seri- 
 ously injured by dampness and salt air combin- 
 ed. 
 
 If it is impracticable to build a stand, and the 
 locality is sandy, a hole may be dug, with the exca- 
 vated sand banked around it, and the sportsman may 
 deposit himself upon his Mackintosh at the bottom. 
 However, to one unaccustomed to the posture, it is 
 difficult to rise and shoot from such a position, and a 
 comfortable seat is far preferable ; and besides, the 
 mosquitoes are thicker near the earth ; the breeze has 
 less effect and the sun more.
 
 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 199 
 
 The stools should be so placed that they can bo 
 readily seen from the line of flight, not too high 
 above the water, and the farthest not more than 
 thirty-five yards from the shooter. If too near a 
 bank, they will be confounded with the grass, and be 
 invisible even to the keen eye of the snipe. They 
 should be scattered sufficiently to allow each one to 
 be distinct, and must be headed in different direc- 
 tions, so that some may present their broadsides to 
 every quarter of the heavens. They should tail 
 down wind, in a measure, from the stand, as the birds, 
 no matter what direction they come from, head up 
 wind in order to alight, and will make a circle to do 
 so. In this way they reach the lower end of the 
 imitation flock first, and are led safely close to the 
 sportsman, giving him an admirable opportunity to 
 make his selection from their ranks. 
 
 As the tide varies according to the wind and moon, 
 and will often cover with several feet of water places 
 usually dry, it is well to have two sets of sticks one 
 set for deep water much longer than those for ordi- 
 nary use ; otherwise, it will occasionally be found im- 
 possible to set out the stools at all, or they will stand 
 so high above the ground as to resemble bean-poles 
 more than birds. 
 
 It is customary to have in the flock, which should 
 not be less than forty, imitations of the different 
 species some being brown to represent marlin, 
 others grey, with white breasts and a white and 
 black streak over the tail to stand for willet, and so 
 on ; but a more important point is to have them large.
 
 200 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 Small stools cannot be seen far enough to attract a 
 yelper sailing amid the clouds, or a marlin sweeping 
 along the distant horizon ; and although it is pretty 
 and appropriate to have them of suitable colors, size 
 is more necessary. A sickle-bill is a large bird, and 
 I have seen one tethered among the stools towering 
 above them, so that the imitations looked puny by 
 comparison, although larger than they were usually 
 made. The word stool is derived from the Danisl 
 stoel, and signifies something set up on less than 
 four legs, but of the mode or reason of its adoption 
 we have no record ; it is in universal use, to the ex- 
 clusion of the more elegant and appropriate term, 
 decoy, which is confined to imitation of wild fowl. 
 Stools are ordinarily made of wood, and occasionally 
 painted with great artistic care and skill ; and although 
 a rough affair, coarsely daubed, seems often to an- 
 swer nearly as well, there are times when the birds, 
 rendered wild by many hair-breadth escapes, look 
 sharply ere they draw near, and will not approach 
 unsightly blocks of wood, no matter how sweetly 
 they seem to whistle. 
 
 As wooden stools take up much room and are 
 troublesome to carry for any distance, tin ones have 
 been made that will pack together in a small space. 
 By heading these, different ways, they present a good 
 view to the snipe, except when the latter are high 
 in air, from which position they are invisible. To 
 remedy this defect, it has been suggested that a strip 
 of tin of the width of the body may be soldered 
 along the upper edge ; and thus, while they pack
 
 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 201 
 
 snugly, a section of the object is presented in every 
 direction. 
 
 Wooden stools are decidedly the best, especially 
 where it is desirable that the birds should alight, 
 and are in general use. They are made of pine, and 
 painted the distinctive colors of their prototypes ; 
 thus sickle-bills, marlin, and jacks, are all brown with 
 dark spots on the back and wings ; willet, as hereto- 
 fore described ; yellow-legs, dark mottled grey on 
 the back and wings, and white beneath ; dowitchers 
 brown on the back and wings, and yellowish-white 
 below ; bull-head plover light on the back, with dark 
 breasts ; robin-snipe light grey on the back and side, 
 and reddish beneath. But the snipe are not always 
 discriminating, and a few varieties will answer every 
 purpose. 
 
 Stools are easily made and moderate in cost, and 
 every sportsman should have not less than twenty- 
 five of his own, so that in case those that he finds at 
 the country taverns for the public use are engaged, 
 he may have some to fall back upon although 
 twenty-five are not a full supply. They may be 
 carried in a bag or basket, with their feet and bills 
 removed ; and the basket will be useful to hold lunch, 
 ammunition, or game. 
 
 Extempore representations can be made from the 
 dead birds, although they are not quite so good as 
 the wooden ones, by cutting a forked stick with one 
 end much longer than the other, and thrusting the 
 longer point into the bird's neck and the > horter one 
 into its body. It may then be stood up in the sand k
 
 202 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 and will make a decoy scarcely distinguishable by 
 man from the living prototype, but apparently more 
 unnatural to the birds which are sometimes alarm- 
 ed at its ghastly appearance than the ordinary 
 stools. 
 
 Very perfect stools are made of India-rubber, 
 which, being compressible and light, can be readily 
 transported, and are a deceptive imitation ; their 
 principal defects are their liability to injury from 
 shot which is also the case with wooden ones and 
 the facility with which the hole where their long leg 
 is inserted becomes torn an accident that entirely 
 destroys their usefulness. They can be packed in a 
 small compass, and are infinitely the best article 
 where they are to be carried long distances. Al- 
 though of necessity undersized, their full plump shape 
 makes them visible at a considerable distance. 
 
 To prevent the bills, which are the most delicate 
 part, from being injured, it is necessary to make 
 them rather thicker than those of the living bird ; 
 they are to be painted dark-brown, blue, or grey, ac- 
 cording to circumstances ; and their loss, although 
 it may not diminish the attractiveness, destroys the 
 beauty of the fictitious flock. More important than 
 perfection of decoys, is accuracy in whistling ; this 
 should be a perfect imitation and answer to the call 
 of the bird, and will often allure him to the fowler 
 without any decoys whatever. It is impossible to 
 describe the calls on paper, and long practice will 
 alone give a thorough knowledge of them ; they are 
 generally shrill and loud ; the shriller and louder the
 
 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 203 
 
 better for man's best efforts will rarely equal the 
 bird's natural powers. The yelper has a clear, bold 
 cry, and the willet a fierce shriek that can be heard 
 for miles ; and if listened to from a distance, it will 
 be found that the bird's call can be heard twice the 
 distance of the man's answer. It is true that when 
 the snipe are near at hand and about alighting, a 
 lower whistle is better, for the reason that it is more 
 perfect, and because the cry changes to a note oi 
 welcome when the flock receives its fellows. And 
 often, when the birds once head for the stools, if not 
 distracted by neighboring stands, or alarmed, they 
 Avill come straight on without any whistling, although 
 this is by no means invariably the case. 
 
 Many persons find insuperable difficulty in whis- 
 tling the clear, shrill, sharp calls ; and for them arti- 
 ficial whistles have been manufactured with a hole 
 at the lower end, which, being opened or closed by 
 the finger, like the holes in a flute, regulates the 
 sound. These artificial whislles are not so good as 
 a perfectly trained natural one ; the sound is not 
 sufficiently reed-like, and they occupy and confine 
 one hand when it should be free to seek the gun. 
 They are suspended from the button-hole by a string, 
 so that they can be dropped in an instant ; but are 
 only used out of necessit}'. 
 
 A curious one, to be held in the mouth, has been 
 invented of a wedge-shaped piece of tin in the form 
 of an axe-head, with two holes through the sides. 
 The sound is regulated by the tongue, and is alto- 
 gether more correct than that of any other whistle ;
 
 204 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 but more time and patience are required to learn the 
 use of this invention than of the lips. It will be far 
 better for the sportsman who intends to pursue this 
 sport, to practise with the organs that nature has 
 given him, however much time or perseverance may 
 be necessary, and then there will be no danger of 
 leaving his whistle at home. 
 
 As before remarked, the great drawback to the 
 sport of shooting bay-snipe is its uncertainty ; if the 
 flight has not come on, or a westerly wind has driven 
 the birds to sea, or a heavy north-easter carries them 
 with it high in air and prevents their stopping 
 there Avill be no shooting ; and the most experienced 
 hand will often receive the comforting assurance 
 which is always bestowed upon the inexperienced, 
 that if he had only come two weeks sooner, or de- 
 ferred his visit two weeks longer, he would have 
 been sure of fine sport. There are nevertheless cer^ 
 tain general rules that furnish a tolerable criterion ; 
 and laying aside the spring shooting, which occurs 
 in May, and is extremely uncertain, the main flight 
 of small birds such asdowitchers and yellow-legs 
 commences about the tenth of July, and of large 
 birds about the fifteenth of August. Each lasts about 
 two weeks. 
 
 The flight of large birds usually termin-ates with a 
 short flight of yellow-legs, and is followed by the 
 plover, which are succeeded by the kriekers. An 
 easterly storm generally brings the birds, either by 
 bearing them from their northern homes, or by forc- 
 ing them in from the sea, where the mnin body is
 
 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 205 
 
 supposed to fly ; and if such a storm occur at eithei 
 of these periods, and be succeeded by a south-wester- 
 ly wind, it will surely be followed by an abundance 
 of the appropriate birds. 
 
 During an easterly blow they will be seen passing 
 by Point Judith in nn almost unbroken line ; and 
 after it, they abound throughout the whole length 
 of the coast, as though they had been carried to all 
 parts of it at once. But if no such storm occur, 
 the catching the flight is a mere chance ; and where 
 the summer has been dry, the snipe will be scarce. 
 If the meadows have been kept moist by continual 
 showers, there Avill be a moderate supply of game 
 the summer through ; but if there has been a drought, 
 the surface becomes too hard for the snails and in- 
 sects to inhabit, or for the birds to penetrate ; a scar- 
 city of food results, and there will be no flight what- 
 ever. 
 
 Scattering birds, wandering away from their fel- 
 lows and exhausted with hunger, delighted at be- 
 holding their friends apparentty feeding, will be 
 killed perhaps in numbers sufficient to make now 
 and then a decent bag ; but what is known as the 
 " flight" when the great army moves its vast co- 
 horts, division after division, regiment after regiment, 
 company after company will not take place. How 
 they reach the south no one can accurately tell ; 
 they either fly inland or out at sea high in the air, 
 or late at night ; but their returning myriads in the 
 spring following, prove that in some way they did 
 reach their southern winter homes.
 
 200 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 Notwithstanding the. greatest experience, and de- 
 spite the most favorable signs, the oldest gunner will 
 find that more or less uncertainty exists in obtaining 
 sport, and that his imlucky expeditions generally out- 
 number his lucky ones. Often a flight will commence 
 unexpectedly and without any apparent reason ; 
 and a change of weather, after a long continuance of 
 wind from one quarter, will be followed by good 
 shooting for some days, although such weather is 
 not intrinsically favorable. The follower of bay- 
 birds must therefore make up his mind to disap- 
 pointment, and on such occasions live on his hopes 
 for the future, or his recollections of the past. 
 
 For this sport a heavy gun, such as is commonly 
 employed for ducks, is not at all necessary ; inasmuch 
 as many of the birds are small and the flocks fre- 
 quently scattered, it is rarely desirable to use two 
 ounces of shot and five drachms of powder ; and to 
 fire such a charge at a solitary dowitcher, as is often 
 done, is simply ridiculous. A light field-gun, with 
 an ounce and a quarter of shot and three drachms 
 and a half of powder, (or, as I prefer, an ounce of shot 
 and three drachms of powder,) is amply sufficient 
 will confer more pleasure and require more skill in 
 the use, will cut down a reasonable number from a 
 flock, and will kill a single bird handsomely. 
 
 The gun should be kept at half-cock, and may be 
 laid upon a bench beside the sportsman ; there is 
 always time to cock it, even if a flock is not seen till 
 it is over the stools ; and a gun at full cock in a stand, 
 is a danger that no reasonable man will encounter.
 
 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 207 
 
 In field-shooting, I do not approve of carrying the 
 gun at half-cock, believing, for certain reasons un- 
 necessary here to repeat, that it is less dangerous at 
 full-cock ' } but in a stand or in a house, or in fact 
 anywhere but in the field where it is always in the 
 sportsman's hand, it should be never otherwise than 
 at half-cock. It is common to pass in front of guns 
 lying on the bench in the stand, and they often fall 
 off, and are usually reached for by the sportsman 
 while his eye is on the advancing flock, and does not 
 note whether his hand grasps the barrel or the trig- 
 gers ; and there is an excitement, when the flight is 
 rapid, sufficiently perilous of itself in connexion with 
 fire-arms, without uselessly increasing it. Every 
 precaution should therefore be taken ; and if by acci- 
 dent the gun which cannot go off at half-cock shall 
 be discharged in cocking or uncocking it, it will 
 point forward, away from the stand, and in such a 
 direction that injury to human life cannot follow. 
 
 Next in importance to care in preventing the 
 gun's injuring a fellow-creature, is care in prevent- 
 ing its being injured. The least dampness, whether 
 from fog or rain, and even the salt air alone, will rust 
 the delicate steel and iron, and, penetrating farther 
 and farther, make indentations that will spoil its 
 beauty and injure its effectiveness permanently. To 
 prevent this, oil frequently applied is the only reme- 
 dy ; a rag well oiled, and a bottle to replenish from, 
 should be among the ordinary equipments, and in- 
 variably taken to the shooting-ground ; the first 
 symptom of rust or even discoloration should be re-
 
 208 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 moved, and every portion of the iron-work kept 
 well lubricated. At night a waterproof covering 
 should be used, and the charge invariably left un- 
 drawn, as the dirt prevents oxydization for a time ; 
 and during a rain the utmost care should be taken 
 to protect, if not the entire gun, at least the locks and 
 trigger-plate. Kerosene oil is excellent to remove 
 rust, but is too thin to form a coating, and not so 
 good a protection as sweet or whale oil. Varnish 
 is highly recommended, but I have never known 
 any one to try it ; and in case no oil can be obtain- 
 ed, the gunners on Long Island are in the habit of 
 shooting a small snipe, which is often extremely fat, 
 and using its skin as an oiled rag. 
 
 Of course with a breech-loader the charge is with- 
 drawn, and the cleaning apparatus may be forced 
 through every evening, although this is unnecessary, 
 asthe dirt is rather a protection : and after thecleaning, 
 whether of the muzzle-loader or breech-loader, the 
 barrels should be well oiled both inside and out. If, 
 however, the gun is to be left for a long time unused 
 and exposed to salt air, a piece of greasy rag wound 
 upon a stick may be thrust into the barrels to the 
 bottom, and oil should be liberally applied to the ex- 
 posed parts. Moreover, the locks, however well 
 they may fit, will be injured after a while, and should 
 be removed and examined occasionally. The size of 
 shot used should be changed according to the season 
 and character of the flight ; in July, when the yellow- 
 legs and dowitchers are. the principal victims, No. 8 
 is abundantly large ; but in August, when curlews,
 
 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 209 
 
 marlin, and willets are flying, all of which are able 
 to endure severe punishment, No. 6 is preferable. 
 Eley's cartridges are often useful with grass-plover, 
 although they ball so frequently that the majority 
 of sportsmen have lost faith in them. 
 
 Favorable seasons for snipe, when heavy or re- 
 peated rains have saturated the meadows, and filled 
 every hollow with stagnant pools of dirty water, are 
 also favorable for mosquitoes. Persons who suffer 
 from the bites of this pestiferous insect and the 
 difference beUveen individuals upon this subject is 
 remarkable should prepare themselves with mos- 
 quito-nets and ill-scented oils, as they would for a 
 visit to the wild woods ; while those who are much 
 affected by the sun should bring unguents with 
 which to temper its intensity and assuage the pain 
 that its burning rays inflict. 
 
 Shoes are the proper things for the feet, as boots 
 become heated and uncomfortable ; and a brown 
 linen jacket with white flannel pantaloons, thick 
 enough to resist the attacks of a mosquito, and 
 with the necessary underclothes for an exceptionally 
 cold day, constitute the most practical rig. 
 
 If the sportsman use a muzzle-loader which he 
 should not do if he can afford to buy a breech- 
 loader he must have a loading-stick which he can 
 extemporize from his cleaning-rod by substituting a 
 ramrod head for the jag. This he docs by simply 
 having a piece of brass of the proper size and shape 
 to screw into the place of the latter. He should also 
 have two guns, or he loses the chance at the return-
 
 210 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 ing flock, which is the most exciting, as it is oftcr. 
 the most successful shot. 
 
 The powder should be coarse ; the large grain of 
 the ducking-powder being alone fitted to withstand 
 the deleterious effects of the moisture that is an inva- 
 riable concomitant of the salt atmosphere of tho 
 ocean. 
 
 One great difficulty that the writer has encoun- 
 tered in preparing this work, is .a proper selection of 
 names the natural history of our country is popu- 
 larly so little understood; to copy English names 
 and apply them to creatures bearing a faint resem- 
 blance in general coloring, though neither in habits 
 nor scientific distinctions, was so natural to the first 
 immigrants, and the introduction of a proper appel- 
 lation is so nearly impossible, that the confusion in 
 nomenclature of our birds, beasts, and fishes is hardly 
 surprising. This confusion existing in every depart- 
 ment of natural history confounding fish of all vari- 
 eties, leaving birds nameless, or giving them too 
 many names culminates among the bay-snipe. 
 
 Although the bony-fish or mossbunkers of New 
 York become the menhaden of the Eastern States, 
 and king-fish are transformed into barb in New 
 Jersey, and perch become pickerel in the west 
 there are rarely more than two names, and every 
 fish has some designation ; but with bay-snipe, after 
 an infinite multiplication of names for certain species, 
 others are left entirely unnamed. Many that are 
 frequently killed are without a popular designation, 
 and more still are called frost-birds, .and meadow-
 
 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 211 
 
 snipe, and beach-birds names that might with justice 
 be applied to the entire class, and which are so 
 utterly confused, that persons from different sections 
 of the country do not know what others are talking 
 about. To make matters worse, the scientific gen- 
 tlemen have stepped in, and after indulging in plenty 
 of bad Latin, have added fresh English appellations, 
 more unmeaning and less appropriate if possible than 
 the common ones. 
 
 From this mass of incongruities the writer has 
 endeavored, while preserving the best name, to select 
 the one in general use, bearing in mind that names 
 are mere substitutes, and not descriptive adjectives. 
 The name frost-bird or frost-snipe which belongs to 
 entirely different creatures is applicable to every 
 bird that appears after a frost, and as nearly a hundred 
 varieties are in this category, it is not distinctive ; 
 the names meadow-snipe and beach-bird are ridicu- 
 lous, but the latter, being applied to an unimportant 
 class, is allowed to stand. The snipe that is herein 
 called a krieker, or, as it may be spelled, creaker, 
 which utters a hoarse, creaking note, is called in vari- 
 ous places meadow-snipe although most of the bay- 
 birds haunt the meadows ; fat-bird, whereas others 
 are equally fat ; and short neck, in spite of the fact 
 that its neck is longer than some species; while 
 ornithologists call it pectoral sandpiper, probably 
 because it has a breast. So also with the brant-bird, 
 which is called on the coast of New Jersey horsefoot- 
 snipe, because it feeds on the spawn ot the horse- 
 foot ; notwithstanding that the yellow-legs and seve-
 
 212 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 rail others do the same. The name, however, is not 
 satisfactory on account of .its similarity to the brant 
 or brent-goose ; and probably the scientific desig- 
 nation, turnstone, if it were at all in common 
 acceptation, would be better. It is to be hoped these 
 names will at some day be harmonized by universal 
 consent, and these pages will at least make mutual 
 comprehension open the way for that desirable result. 
 The sickle-bill, jack-curlew, marlin, willet, golden- 
 plover, yelper, dowitcher, and krieker, are excellent; 
 and the ring-tailed marlin, black-breast plover, yel- 
 low-legs, and robin-snipe, are at least descriptive. 
 Were these generally accepted, a simple and tole- 
 rably accurate system of nomenclature would be 
 obtained; and it has been my effort, while placing 
 the preferable name at the head of the description of 
 each variety, to collate all the other names that in 
 any section of our vast territory are applied to the 
 same bird. In this attempt I can only be partially 
 successful; for the ingenuity of the American people 
 in coining new names, added to a profound ignorance 
 of ornithology, has produced a confusion that no one 
 man can reduce to order. 
 
 Bay-snipe, except the plovers, kriekers, and a few 
 others, are not considered delicate eating, contract- 
 ing along the salt marshes a sedgy flavor ; but on 
 the shores of the western lakes, where the fresh 
 water appears to remove this peculiarity, the yellow- 
 legs and yelpers which are often found in consi- 
 derable numbers, and are called by the general 
 appellation of plovers are almost equal in tender,
 
 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 215 
 
 juicy delicacy to the English snipe. Whether the 
 same change is noticeable in the larger varieties, I 
 cannot say of my own knowledge. 
 
 The gunners have an ingenious way of stringing 
 them in bunches of a half dozen each, on the longest 
 feathers taken from their wings, a pair of these being 
 tied together by the feather ends, and the quillpoints 
 thrust through the nostrils of the birds. It is desi- 
 rable to put them up in small bunches, as under the 
 warm temperature of summer they will, unless every 
 precaution is exercised, soon become tainted. To 
 prevent this, the entrails should also be carefully 
 removed without disturbing the plumage ; and a 
 little salt, or, as many persons recommend, coffee, 
 rubbed inside, and they should be at all times care- 
 fully protected from the sun. Their sedgy flavor 
 grows stronger with every day they are kept ; and 
 being extremely oily, the least taint renders them, 
 together with all the wild inhabitants of the coast, 
 unfit for food. 
 
 Bay-snipe are essentially migratory, rarely stop- 
 ping on our shores to build their nests and rear their 
 young ; during the spring months they pass to or 
 beyond the coast of Labrador, and attend to the 
 duties of maternity in the vast levels and swamps 
 that surround Hudson's Bay, and constitute a large 
 portion of the northern part of British North Ame- 
 rica. In my ramblings through the Provinces, I was 
 frequently informed that they abounded during the 
 latter part of summer on the marshes near the Bay 
 Chaleur in New Brunswick. This must evidently
 
 210 BAY- SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 have been during their return flight; but whether 
 they were our bay-birds in their vast variety, or 
 whether they were merely the flocks of golden 
 plover that follow the Avinding of the coast and sub- 
 sequently visit Nantucket and Montauk Point, I had 
 no opportunity to determine by personal experience. 
 
 With us they make their appearance in the neigh- 
 borhood of Boston Bay, and thence they are found, 
 with various intermissions, caused by the nature of 
 the ground, all the way to the State of Texas. The 
 innumerable bays, sounds, and lagoons of our South- 
 ern States, inclosed by broad meadows and includ- 
 ing thousands of marshy islands, are their favorite 
 feeding-grounds, and are visited by them in unnum- 
 bered thousands. The larger varieties may be seen 
 there all through the fall quietly feeding, and scarce- 
 ly noticing the approach of man. In Texas they 
 seem to congregate in vast bodies, and probably move 
 off to or beyond the equator in the early winter 
 months, although, this has never been positively as- 
 certained. 
 
 They are not killed as game south of Virginia, 
 and rarely south of New Jersey ; in fact, it may be 
 said that only on Cape Cod, Long Island, and the 
 shore line of New Jersey, are they scientifically pur- 
 sued. At these places the sport has greatly dimi- 
 nished of late years ; a few years ago Barmstable beach 
 was a celebrated resort ; and at Quog;ie, parties 
 used no stools, but stationed themselves along the 
 narrow neck that connects the beach with the main 
 land, and fired till their guns were dirty or their am-
 
 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 317 
 
 munition exhausted, Then it was no unusual thing 
 to expend twenty-five pounds of shot in a day, where 
 now the sportsman that could use up five would be 
 fortunate. 
 
 Of all the locations on this extent of meadow and 
 beach, no place is so famous, from its natural advan- 
 tages and its ancient reputation, as Quogue. Once 
 on a time the best pond was permanently occupied by 
 a famous Governor, a still more famous General, and 
 a notorious Colonel although the latter was not " in 
 the bond ;" but there are other good stands, and for 
 small birds yellow-legs, dowitchers, and robin-snipe 
 it has no equal. Although many flocks pass it 
 high in air, all those that follow the coast, low down 
 to the earth, must cross the meadows that are com- 
 pressed to a narrow strip at this point, which is the 
 dividing-ground between the two great bays on the 
 south side of Long Island. 
 
 Unfortunately, a watering-place for the summer 
 resort of the exquisites of New York has been es- 
 tablished in the vicinity, and the consequent advan- 
 tages of comfortable beds and a good table are more 
 than overborne by the annoyance of such companion- 
 ship. If there be a flight of birds, every unfledged 
 sportsman takes out his elegant fowling-piece, and, 
 daintily dressed, proceeds to the meadow, where 
 he would be comparatively harmless, and dangerous 
 only to himself, were there room for him and his 
 fellows. But as the ground is limited, and the 
 favorable points few, he is sure to interfere ; and, while 
 killing nothing himself, ruins the prospects of those
 
 218 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
 
 who could do better. At Quogue, decoys were first 
 used about the year 1850, and the best day's sport of 
 late was one hundred and thirty-eight birds. 
 
 West of Quogue there are some snipe, and occa- 
 sionally a good flight at South Oyster Bay, and 
 more rarely still at Rockaway ; but the large birds 
 are not numerous north of New Jersey. Squan 
 Beach, Barnegat, Egg Harbor, and Brigantine Beach 
 are famous for the large birds the sickle-bills, cur- 
 lews, willets, and marlius that visit them ; the 
 same number of shots cannot be obtained as at 
 Quogue, but the bag is larger. At the former 
 places there is also a flight, of greater or less extent, 
 of dowitchers and yellow-legs, but these are not so 
 abundant as along the margin of the Great South 
 Bay of Long Island. On the other hand, a bag of 
 one hundred of the larger varieties is not unusual; 
 while at Egg Harbor the robin-snipe, which affect 
 marshy islands are exceedingly numerous. 
 
 Twenty years ago there was good bay-snipe shoot- 
 ing at what is termed "Fire Island," and even in 
 the year 1883 there was a remarkable flight late in 
 the fall. But the cry of old George, which the 
 gunners of "long ago " welcomed in their youth, 
 is never heard now; George and his salutation have 
 departed, and "Wake up, all them as is goin' 
 sniping" is a thing of the past.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE JEBSEY COAST. 
 
 " A Girl from New Jersey" 
 
 WHY is it that every one who visits New Jersey 
 comes away with an ecstatic impression of Jersey 
 girls that he never can forget ? Lovely they are, it 
 is true, but not more beautiful than other fair ones 
 of America ; affable, gentle, graceful, sprightly but 
 these qualities are common in our angel-favored 
 country. -Yet no one that has been blessed with 
 their company can forget them, but carries for ever 
 in his heart the image of one, if not two or three, 
 Jersey girls. 
 
 These reflections were suggested to the writer by 
 the recollection of his first trip, many years ago, to 
 the Jersey coast. The summer had been oppres- 
 sively hot, and being detained in town during the 
 fore part of August, he was glad to avail himself of 
 the first chance to escape from the city and betake 
 himself to the cool, invigorating breezes of the sea- 
 shore. Not knowing precisely what route to follow, 
 he trusted himself on board the train without any 
 definite destination, and, upon inquiry, was informed 
 that a good place for bay-shooting was- at Tommy 
 Cook's, near the coast, and about four miles from
 
 220 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 one of the last stations on the road, where, under 
 the charge of the Quaker host, considerable com- 
 fort could be had. 
 
 To Cook's, therefore, upon reaching the station, 
 the writer told the driver of what seemed to be a 
 mongrel public coach, that he wanted to go ; but in 
 thoughtlessness, never conceiving that there could be 
 two Cooks, he omitted the Tommy that should have 
 preceded the direction. His surprise was by no 
 means moderate to find, upon reaching his destina- 
 tion, the supposed Quaker host slightly inebriated, 
 dancing a solitary hornpipe to an admiring circle. 
 Thinking perhaps that that was the custom of Jersey 
 Quakers for the State is exceptional in certain 
 things he took a glass of bad whiskey with the 
 jovial landlord, made proposals, much to every one's 
 surprise, to go shooting the day following, and re- 
 tired early. 
 
 Next morning a short walk dissipated all idea of 
 finding game, and having made the discovery that 
 he was still fifteen miles from the proper shooting- 
 ground on the beach, he returned to the house, and 
 in order to enjoy a few hours ere the wagon for his 
 further transportation would be ready, joined a 
 bathing party. It was quite a sociable affair ; both 
 sexes, dressed in their bathing clothes the girls 
 without shoes crowded down in the bottom of an 
 open wagon. But surely it is not fair to tell how 
 one of the flannel-encased nymphs nearly fell from 
 the wagon, and was caught in the arms of the writer, 
 who had jumped out for the purpose ; nor how the
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 221 
 
 rest drove off to leave them ; nor how he bore his 
 lovely burden plastic grace and beauty personified 
 bravely in pursuit ; nor how his foot chanced to 
 trip accidentally, of course and they fell and 
 rolled in the sand together. If he would tell, he 
 could not ; words do not exist for the purpose. 
 
 He had, however, all he could do to explain 
 the accident and pacify the nymph. If she had 
 known how much of solidity there was in her love- 
 liness, and how little of romance in the deep yield- 
 ing sand, she might have more readily accepted the 
 excuse of weariness. If the grasshopper becomes a 
 burden under certain circumstances, Avhy may not 
 a naiad ? 
 
 The road to the beach lay through a village for- 
 merly known by the euphonious and distinctive title 
 of Crab Town a village of a thousand inhabitants. 
 It was evening ere Crab Town was reached, and 
 just beyond, the driver came upon a bevy of female 
 acquaintances. In a moment the suggestion was 
 made that they should ride; after a little demur 
 they accepted, and were crowded in. The stage 
 was not large, but there would have been room if 
 they had been twice as numerous ; they filled every 
 seat, and every lap besides. 
 
 There are days in one's lifetime that should be 
 celebrated as anniversaries ; and if any gentleman 
 has carried in his arms, albeit with true tenderness, 
 one charming Jersey girl in the morning, and has 
 had another equally charming sit on his lap in the 
 evening, he may look upon that day as never -likely 
 to repeat itself.
 
 222 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 There was a hum of pleasant voices words like, 
 "Oh! Deb, we should not have got in;" "Why, 
 Mary, we may as well ride it's all in our way." 
 '' But these gentlemen are strangers, and may think 
 it wrong of us." "Oh, Lib, don't talk that way; 
 they know better." We assured them that nothing 
 could be more perfectly proper. So situated, 
 the ride appeared very short, and the next mile, 
 which was as far as our delightful freight would go, 
 was passed seemingly in about a minute and a half, 
 decidedly the fastest time on record. At the end 
 of it, on a suggestion from the driver, who lived in 
 that section and knew the country, toll was taken 
 of their rosy lips as passage-money. Jersey is a 
 glorious place. 
 
 Passing Charley's, as he is generally called, the 
 son of the old man, who for years was famous as the 
 first hunter in that land, we turned off beyond, down 
 the beach. The bay between the mainland and the 
 sand-bar, known everywhere as " The Beach," was 
 narrow, widening slowly as we advanced, until, at 
 the end of our seven miles' journey, it was nearly 
 three miles across. There was little vegetation be- 
 side salt grass and bay-berry bushes ; but of the 
 animal kingdom the only representatives the mos- 
 quitoes were thicker than the mind of man can 
 conceive ; they rose in crowds, pursuing us fiercely, 
 covering the horses in an unbroken mass, settling 
 upon ourselves, flying into our eyes, crawling upon 
 our necks, stinging through our clothes, and filling 
 the air. Although small, they were hungry be-
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 223 
 
 yond belief, and, following their prey relentlessly, 
 compelled us to fight them off with bushes of bay- 
 berry for our lives. 
 
 Mosquitoes are found plentifully at our summer 
 watering-places, and still more numerously in the 
 wild woods, grow abundantly in Canada, and are 
 over-plentiful at Lake Superior ; but nowhere are 
 they so merciless, fierce, and numerous, as, on occa- 
 sions, at the New Jersey beach. They are a beauti- 
 ful little creature, delicate, graceful, and elegant, 
 but obtrusive in their attentions; although the 
 ardent lover was anxious to be bitten by the same 
 mosquito that had bitten his lady-love, that their 
 blood might mingle in the same body. 
 
 One good effect they had, however, was to com- 
 pel the driver to urge on his weary team, and leave 
 him no time to gossip at Jakey's Tavern, over the 
 beach party that was to be held there next day. A 
 beach party is another delightful institution of the 
 Jcrseyites, and consists of a congregation of the 
 youths of both sexes, especially the female, collected 
 from the main shore, and meeting on the beach for 
 a frolic, a dance, and a bath. As it rarely breaks 
 up till daylight, the pleasantest intimacies are some- 
 times formed, and soft words uttered that could not 
 be wrung from blushing beauty in broad day. 
 
 The establishment of the " old man" the sporting 
 " old man," not the political one since he has been 
 gathered to his forefathers, is kept up by his son-in- 
 law, usually known by the abbreviation Bill. It 
 is not an elegant place ; sportsmen do not demand
 
 224 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 elegance, and willingly sleep, if not in the same room, 
 in chambers that lead into one another ; but it is 
 situated within a hundred yards of the best shooting 
 ground, and is as well kept as any other tavern on 
 the beach. Sportsmen do not mind- Availing their 
 turn to use the solitary wash basin, drawing water 
 from the hogshead, or wiping on the same towel, 
 but are thankful for good food, and the luxury of a 
 well filled ice-house. 
 
 In addition to the general directions heretofore 
 given, it may be well in this connexion to describe 
 more particularly the mode of killing bay-snipe. A 
 number of imitation birds, usually called stools, are 
 cut from wood, and painted to resemble the various 
 species ; they have a long stick, or leg, inserted into 
 the lower part of the body, and a sufficient number 
 to constitute a large flock arc set up in shallow 
 water, or upon some bar where the birds are accus- 
 tomed to feed. They are made from thin wood, or 
 even from tin, and are headed various ways so as to 
 show in all directions ; the coarsest and least perfect 
 imitations will answer. 
 
 The most remarkable trait of the shore birds, or 
 bay-snipe, is their gregarious nature and sociability. 
 A flock flying high in air, apparently intent upon 
 some settled course, Avil!, the moment they see ano- 
 ther flock feeding, turn and join it. Their natural 
 history, or the object which they evidently have in 
 thus joining forces, does not seem to be understood ; 
 but the baymen, by imitation-birds and calls, take 
 advantage of this instinct. Farther south, along the
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 225 
 
 shores of Florida and Texas, these snipe collect in 
 crowds; and either this is the first step towards that 
 purpose, or they are merely attracted by the feeding 
 birds to a promising place for a plentiful repast. 
 
 Although ordinarily they will come to the stools 
 of themselves, if they happen to be at a distance fly- 
 ing fast and high, the gunner must trust to the 
 shrillness of his whistle and the perfection of his call, 
 to attract their attention. If they turn towards the 
 decoys and answer the Avhistle which they will do at 
 an immense distance they are almost sure to come 
 straight .on, and their confidence once gained, rarely 
 wavers. 
 
 There is a common expression among the bay- 
 men, that birds have a trade, or are trading up and 
 down over a certain course, by which they mean 
 that they fly backward and forward at regular hours, 
 and to and from regular places. Snipe that are 
 thus engaged trading arc not only in the finest con- 
 dition, but come to the decoys, or stool, as it is term- 
 ed, the most readily. They are probably stopping 
 on the meadows, and fly to their feeding-grounds in 
 the morning and back at night. The great migra- 
 tory bodies, which frequently stretch in broken lines 
 almost across the horizon, and which are pursu- 
 ing their steady course to their southern homes, 
 rarely heed the whistle, or turn to the silly flock 
 that is eating while it should be travelling. 
 
 The best days are those with a cloudy sky, and a 
 ^outh-westerly wind. On such occasions the birds 
 often come in myriads, delighting the sportsman's
 
 22G THE JERSEY COAST* 
 
 heart, testing his nerves, and filling his bag to reple- 
 tion. When the object is to kill the greatest num- 
 ber possible, they are permitted to alight among the 
 stools and collect together before the gun is fired ; 
 then the first discharge is followed rapidly by the 
 second, which tears among their thinned ranks as 
 they rise; and, if there be a second gun, by the third 
 and fourth barrel, till frequently all are killed. The 
 scientific and sportsmanlike mode is to fire before 
 they alight, selecting two or three together and fir- 
 ing at the foremost. 
 
 It is a glorious thing to see a flock of marlin or 
 willet, or perhaps the chief of all, the sickle-bills, 
 SAverve from their course away up in the heavens, 
 and after a moment's uncertainty reply to the sports- 
 man's deceitful call and turn towards his false copies 
 of themselves. As they approach, the rich sienna 
 brown of the marlin and curlew seems to color the 
 sky and reflect a ruddy hue upon surrounding ob- 
 jects ; or the black and white of the barred wings of 
 the willet makes them resemble birds hewn from 
 veined marble. The sportsman's heart leaps to his 
 throat, as crouching down with straining eye and 
 nerve, grasping his faithful gun, he awaits with 
 eager anxiety the proper moment ; then, rising ere 
 they are aware of the danger, he selects the spot 
 where their crowding bodies and jostling wings shut 
 out the clouds beyond, and pours in his first most 
 deadly barrel ; and quickly bringing to bear the 
 other as best he may among the now frightened 
 creatures as they dart about, he delivers it before he
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 227 
 
 has noticed how many fell to the first. Dropping 
 back to his position of concealment, he recommences 
 Avhistling, and the poor things, forgetting their fright 
 and anxious to know why their friends alighted amid 
 a roar like thunder, return to the fatal spot, and 
 again give the fortunate sportsman a chance for his 
 reloaded gun. 
 
 It was for such glorious sport as this, with fair 
 promise of success for the flight was on, as the say- 
 ing is, when the snipe are moving that I prepared 
 myself the next morning. Rising at earliest day- 
 break, a friend, the gunner, and myself sallied out to 
 the blind, and having set out our stools, possessed 
 our souls in patience for what might follow. A blind 
 is another ingenious invention of the devil as per- 
 sonified by a bayman, in pursuit of wild fowl and 
 is constructed by planting bushes thickly in a circle 
 round a bench. Seated upon this bench and con- 
 cealed from the suspicious eyes of the snipe by the 
 dense foliage of the bayberry bushes, the sportsman, 
 in comparative comfort, awaits his prey. In less 
 civilized localities he hides himself among the long 
 sedge grass, or scoops out a hole in the sand and 
 lies at length upon a waterproof blanket. 
 
 The wind had hauled, in nautical language, to the 
 southward and west'ard, and the sun's rays driving 
 aside the hazy clouds, illuminated the eastern sky 
 with fiery glory. The land and water, dim with the 
 heavy night fog, stretched out in broad, undefined 
 outline, and the heavens seemed close down upon 
 the earth. Through the hazy atmosphere and slug-
 
 228 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 gish darkness the rays of light penetrated slowly, 
 bringing out feature after feature of the landscape, 
 lighting the tops of distant hills, and revealing the 
 fleecy coursers of the sky. 
 
 Amid the fading darkness we soon heard the 
 welcome cry of the bay-snipe pursuing his course, 
 guided by light that had not yet reached our portion 
 of the earth's surface. Instantly we responded with 
 a vigor and rapidity on behalf of each, that must 
 have impressed the travelling birds with the belief 
 that we constituted an immense flock. Again and 
 again, long before our straining eyes could catch 
 the outline of their forms, came the answering cry. 
 Our eagerness increased with the approaching sound, 
 until from out the dim air rushed a glorious flock of 
 marbled willet, and swooping down to our stools 
 dropped their long legs to alight we feeling as 
 though little shining goddesses were descending 
 upon us. 
 
 Without pausing to discuss their angelic character, 
 but mercilessly bringing our double-barrels to bear 
 upon the crowded ranks, we poured in a destructive 
 broadside that hurled a dozen upon the bloodied 
 sand. Startled at the fearful report and its terrible 
 consequences, they rose, darting and crossing in 
 their alarm, and fled at full speed ; but hearing again 
 the familiar call, after flying a few hundred yards, 
 they turned and came once more straight for the 
 decoys. Then my friend thought highly of me and 
 my breech-loading gun, for ere he had reloaded I 
 had discharged my two barrels three times, adding
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 229 
 
 six birds to those already upon the sand. Eighteen 
 wiliet from the first flock, and ere the sun was fairly 
 up, gave us a good start ; and after the birds were 
 gathered, the favorable send-off was duly celebrated 
 in a few drops of water with enough spirit to take 
 the danger out. 
 
 And now myriads of swallows made their appear- 
 ance, skimming close along the water, but in one 
 steady course, as though they were going out for 
 the day, and would not be back till night-fall. They 
 were followed by scattering snipe that furnished neat 
 but easy shooting till six o'clock, when the regular 
 flight began with a splendid flock of marlin that 
 came rapidly from the south'ard, and after hovering 
 over the stools and giving us one chance, returned 
 for two more favors from the breech-loader, and left 
 sixteen of their number. 
 
 Sportsmen of any experience know that nothing 
 is easier than to select from a flock a single bird 
 with each barrel ; but in bay-shooting, a man who 
 claims to excel, must kill several with the first bar- 
 rel, and one, at least, with the second. If, however, 
 to the ordinary excitement be added the natural 
 emulation arising from the presence of several sports- 
 men in the same stand, the foregoing desirable 
 result is not always attained. If, therefore, the 
 reader shrewdly suspects we should have killed 
 more birds than we did, let him place himself in a 
 similar position, and record his success. 
 
 Shore birds of the various species, beginning with 
 the magnificent sickle-bill, and including the wary
 
 230 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 jack-curlew, the noisy, larger yellow-legs or yelper, 
 and the smaller one, down to the pretty simple- 
 hearted dowitcher, went to make up our morning's 
 bag. The scorching snn when it hung high over 
 our heads stopped the flight, and, aided by venomous 
 mosquitoes, drove us to the shelter of the house, and 
 turned our thoughts towards dinner. 
 
 The stands being convenient to the tavern, we 
 had run in and snatched a hasty breakfast, but now 
 collected to clean guns, load cartridges, and talk 
 over results. The breech-loader being at that time 
 something of a novelty, attracted considerable at- 
 tention, and was accused of that defect popularly 
 attributed to it, of not shooting strongly. As there 
 were several expensive guns present among them 
 one of William Moore in all of which the owners 
 had great faith, the question was soon tested and 
 settled to the satisfaction of the most sceptical. 
 
 That being concluded, black-breast, or bull-head 
 plover, was the occasion of a terrible contest over 
 the entire plover family some of the sportsmen 
 insisting there were three, others four or five well- 
 known kinds. They all agreed as to there being 
 the grass-plover, the bull-head, and the golden-plo- 
 ver ; but some claimed in addition, the frost bird 
 and the red-backed plover. At last one burst 
 forth : 
 
 " There is Barawell ; he ought to know : what 
 does he say ? " 
 
 As they turned inquiringly, feeling the momentous 
 nature of the occasion, and that now was the chance
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 231 
 
 to establish my reputation for ever, with an air of 
 deep learning, I commenced : 
 
 " In the first place, you are mistaken in including 
 among plovers the grass or grey-plover, as it is 
 commonly called ; it is not a plover at all " 
 
 " Oh ! that is nonsense," they burst forth unani- 
 mously ; " you don't know what you're talking 
 about." 
 
 Never was a growing reputation more suddenly 
 nipped. Instantly reduced to a state of meekness, 
 and only too glad to save a shred of character, I 
 mildly suggested that Giraud's work on the birds 
 of Long Island was in my valise, and probably con- 
 tained the desired information. 
 
 "Well," said one, " let's hear what he says." 
 
 So I procured the book and read as follows : 
 
 " ' TKINGA BAKTRAMIA WILSON. 
 
 BARTRAM'S SANDPIPER. 
 Bartrara's Sandpiper, Tringa Bartramia, Wil. Amer. Orn. 
 
 Totanus Bartramius Bonap. 83' n. 
 Totanus Bartramius Bartram Taller, Su. & Eich. Bartra- 
 
 mian Tatler, NuU. Man. 
 
 Bartramian Sandpiper. Tolanus Bartramius Aud. Orn. 
 Biog.' 
 
 " After giving the specific character, and a spirited 
 account of the well-known manner of shooting them 
 from a wagon, which is not followed with any other 
 bird, as you well know, he proceeds as follows : 
 
 '"In Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, 
 and on the Shinnecock and Hempstead Plains, Long
 
 232 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 Island, it is common, where it is known by the name 
 of "gray," " grass," " field," or " upland " plover. It 
 is very wary, and difficult to be approached. On the 
 ground it has an erect and graceful gait. When 
 alarmed it runs rapidly for a short distance before 
 taking wing, uttering a whistling note as it rises ; 
 its flight is rapid, frequently going out of sight 
 before alighting. It usually keeps on the open, dry 
 grounds feeding on grasshoppers, insects, and seeds. 
 In the month of August it is generally in fine condi- 
 tion, and highly prized as game. When feeding, 
 for greater security, this species scatter about ; the 
 instant the alarm is given, all move oft'. In the lat- 
 ter part of August it migrates southward, and, it is 
 said, performs the journey at night. Stragglers fre- 
 quently remain behind until late in September.' " 
 
 " It is evident he knew the bird," replied one of 
 the objectors ; " but as he calls it by six or seven 
 names the English ones being both sand-piper and 
 tatler he evidently did not know what it should 
 be called." 
 
 " That is the way with naturalists," replied another ; 
 " they each give a name to a species, but in this case 
 all agree that it is not a plover. AVhat is the name 
 plover derived from ? " 
 
 " It comes from the French word Pluvier, rain- 
 bird, because it generally flies during a rain. But 
 naturalists found distinctions more upon the shape 
 of bill and claws than on the habits of any species. 
 According to them, plovers proper have no hind toe, 
 or, at most, only a knob in its place."
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 233 
 
 " Do you know what Frank Forester says on the 
 subject?" 
 
 Feeling my reputation rising a little, I resumed : 
 "He confuses frost-bird and grass-plover, quoting 
 Audubon as his authority; but he points out the 
 distinctive peculiarity of the plover." 
 
 " If he thinks a grass-plover and a frost-bird are 
 alike, he knows very little of his subject. Why, the 
 frost-bird stools admirably, while the plover never 
 stools at all." 
 
 " Not so fast ! Frank Forester was a splendid 
 writer, and upon matters with which he was familiar 
 he was thorough. He has conferred an immense favor 
 upon the American sporting world ; but where he 
 had not personal experience and no one can know 
 everything he had to rely upon others. He has 
 done as much to correct and elevate sportsmanship 
 in this country, to introduce a proper vocabulary, 
 and to enforce obedience to gentlemanly rules, as 
 any man possibly could. As a body, we owe it to 
 him that we are sportsmen, and not pot-hunters. 
 Probably in some places the grass-plover is called a 
 frost-bird." 
 
 " I have more faith in Giraud, and would like to 
 hear what he can tell us about the golden-plover, 
 unless he says that is a sandpiper also." 
 
 " He begins with a description of the black-bellied 
 plover, which is known to us as bull-head, the cha- 
 radrius helveticus, and then describes the American 
 golden-plover, or charadrius pluwialis, and uses 
 these words : ' It is better known to our gunners by
 
 234 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 the name of frost-bird, so called from being more 
 plentiful during the early frosts of autumn, at which 
 season it is generally in fine condition, and exceed- 
 ingly well flavored.' Then follow the ring-plover, or 
 ring-neck charadrius semipalmatus, Wilson's plo- 
 ver; the piping-plover, or beach-bird charadrius 
 melodius ; and the kildeer plover charadrius voci- 
 ferus, these being all the varieties of American plo- 
 ver." 
 
 Bill could stand it no longer; but rising as the 
 book was closed, burst forth at once : 
 
 " Those writers are queer fellows ; they put the 
 oddest, hardest, longest names to birds that ever I 
 heard. Who would have thought of their calling 
 a two-penny beach-bird, a radish meilow-deuce ! 
 What I have to say is we baymcn will never learn 
 these new-fangled names." 
 
 " That is exactly the trouble," I replied. " You 
 baymen will, in different sections of the country, 
 call the same bird by various names, till no one can 
 tell what you are talking about ; and the man of 
 science has to step in and dig up a third name, 
 usually some Latin affair, which nobody will accept. 
 Thus it is that the older frost-birds, which, strange 
 to say, invariably arrive before the young, are 
 known as golden-plover, and their progeny as frost- 
 birds." 
 
 " Speaking of the seasons," replied Bill, evasively, 
 " have you noticed that they are changing every 
 year ? The springs are later than they used to be. 
 In old times the English snipe arrived from the
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 235 
 
 south early in March ; now they hardly come till 
 June ; so, the ducks come later and stay later. The 
 springs are colder, and the autumns warmer, than 
 when I was young, and the bay-snipe appear in 
 September instead of August, as it once was." 
 
 "As to the English snipe you are undoubtedly 
 correct, but this is due probably to their increasing 
 scarcity ; and although we have no spring, and the 
 summer extends frequently into September, this ap- 
 pears to result from the changes in climate effected 
 by clearing the woods. As the forests are cut down, 
 the cold winds of spring, and the burning suns of 
 summer, produce a greater effect, and each in its 
 turn lasts longer. Altogether, however, our seasons 
 seem to be moderating." 
 
 At this interesting point in our discussion, some 
 one discovered by the aid of a telescope that a flock 
 of willet had settled on the sand-bank among the 
 stools. The announcement was followed by a gene- 
 ral seizure of weapons and rush for the blinds. My 
 friend and myself hastened to the little boat, used in 
 floating quietly down upon ducks, and called a 
 " sneak box," and embarking, glided silently to- 
 wards our stand. The tide had left bare a long 
 bank of sand, upon which was collected a glorious 
 flock, or, more properly speaking, two flocks united, 
 one of raarlin and the other of willet. 
 
 All unconscious of approaching danger, the pretty 
 creatures were busily engaged, some in feeding, 
 others in washing dipping under and throwing the 
 water over their graceful bodies others in running
 
 236 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 actively about, or jumping up and taking short flights 
 to dry their wings. A happy murmur ran through 
 the flock, and so innocent and beautiful were they 
 that we remained watching them in silent admi- 
 ration, unwilling to disturb the romance of the 
 charming scene. The rich brown feathers of the 
 imposing marlin formed an exquisite contrast to the 
 white and black of the elegant willet, as the different 
 species mixed unreservedly together. 
 
 They did not exhibit the slightest alarm when our 
 boat, after we had ceased rowing, was borne towards 
 them by the wind, and allowed us to approach till it 
 grounded on the flat. Having feasted our eyes on 
 the magnificent spectacle, we at last gave the word 
 to fire. At the report they rose wildly, and receiving 
 the second discharge, made the best of their way to 
 safer quarters. Both barrels of my friend's gun 
 missed fire, and we gathered only seven birds, as the 
 flock, although numbering at least seventy birds, 
 was widely scattered and offered a poor mark. 
 
 No sooner were we again ensconced in our blind, 
 than the exhilarating sport of the morning was 
 renewed sport such as only those who have tried it 
 can appreciate sport that makes the heart beat and 
 the nerves tingle sport that overweighs humanity 
 and compels the remorseless slaughter of these beau- 
 tiful birds. Flock after flock, seen at great distance, 
 and watched in their approach through changing 
 hopes and fears, or darting unexpectedly from over 
 our heads and first noticed when rushing with ex- 
 tended wings down to our stools, presented their
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 237 
 
 crowded ranks to our delighted gaze. From the 
 very clouds, would come the shrill whistle of the 
 yelper, or from the horizon, the long shriek of the 
 willet, or nearer at hand would be heard the plain- 
 tive note of the gentle dowitcher ; they appeared 
 from all quarters, sailing low along the water or 
 pitching directly down from out the sky. 
 
 Towards evening the flight diminished, and when 
 the hora announced that supper was ready, the dif- 
 ferent parties met once more at the house to compare 
 notes and relate adventures. All had met with 
 excellent success, but our stand carried off the palm. 
 
 " Bill," commenced some unhappy person, after 
 we had left the close, hot dining-room, " why do you 
 not enlarge your house ?" 
 
 "Bill is waiting for another wreck," was the 
 volunteer response ; " the whole coast is fed, clothed, 
 and sheltered by the wrecks. The house is built 
 from the remnants of unfortunate ships, as you per- 
 ceive by the name-boards of the Arion, Pilgrim, 
 Samuel Willets, J. Harthorn, and Johanna, that form 
 so conspicuous a part of the front under the porch. 
 When a vessel is driven ashore, and the crew and 
 passengers who are not quite dead are disposed of 
 by the aid of a stone in the corner of a handkerchief, 
 which makes an unsuspicious bruise, the prize is 
 fought for by the natives, and not only the cargo, 
 but the very ribs and planks of the vessel appro- 
 priated." 
 
 " Now that's not fair," replied Bill, aroused ; " no 
 man, except my father-in-law, has done more to save
 
 238 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 drowning men than I have. I tell you it's an awful 
 sight to see the poor creatures clinging to the rig- 
 ging and bowsprit, to see them washed off before 
 your eyes, sometimes close to you, without your 
 being able to help them, and their dead bodies 
 thrown up by the waves on the sand. You don't 
 feel like stealing or murder at such times; and 
 besides, I never knew a dead man come ashore that 
 had anything in his pockets." 
 
 A peal of laughter greeted this naive remark, toge- 
 ther with the ready response : " Bill, you were too 
 late ; some Barnegat pirate had been before you." 
 
 "No, the Barnegat pirates are kinder than the 
 Government. We do our best to save the poor 
 fellows, but the Government puts men in charge 
 of their station-houses that know nothing about 
 their business. My father-in-law was the first man 
 that threw a line with the cannon over a ship, and 
 he was presented with a medal by the Humane 
 Society. He never was paid a dollar for taking 
 charge of the station, the life-boat, and the cannon. 
 Since he died I kept it for five years, and was paid 
 two years ; now men are selected for their politics. 
 One lives back on the main land two miles from his 
 station-house, another never fired a gun, and a third 
 never rowed a boat. The last got a crew of us toge- 
 ther once to go out to a ship in the life-boat and 
 undertook to steer, but we told him not one of us 
 would go unless he stayed on shore. It is a dan- 
 gerous thing to have a green hand at the helm, or 
 even at an oar, in times like that."
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 239 
 
 w How far can you reach a ship with the cannon ?" 
 we inquired. 
 
 " The line, you know, is fastened to the ball with a 
 short wire, so that it won't burn off, and is coiled up 
 beside the gun, and of course it keeps the ball back, 
 and then people forget we always have to fire against 
 the wind, as vessels are never wrecked with the wind 
 off shore ; so although the guns are expected to 
 carry five hundred yards, they will not carry more 
 than one hundred and eighty. That is enough, 
 though, if they only have the right sort of men to 
 manage them ; but how is a landsman to tell whether 
 he must use the cannon or is safe in going off in the 
 boat ? In one case, while the station-master was try- 
 ing to drag his cannon down to a ship, a party of us 
 took a common boat and landed her crew and pas- 
 sengers before he arrived. I don't care about 
 the pay, for I kept it three years without ; but I 
 hate to see lives sacrificed for politics. Would 
 you like to see the medal they gave to the old 
 man ?" 
 
 We responded in the affirmative ; and he soon pro- 
 duced a silver medal, with an inscription on one side 
 recording the circumstances, and on the other an 
 embossed picture of a ship in distress, a cannon from 
 which the ball and rope attached had been dis- 
 charged and were visible in mid air, several men 
 standing around the gun, and a life-boat climbing 
 the seas. 
 
 " But, Bill, tell us about the Bamegat pirates 
 leading a lame horse with a lantern tied to his neck
 
 240 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 over the sand hills in imitation of a ship's light, and 
 thus inveigling vessels ashore." 
 
 " I can only say I have never heard of it. As 
 quick as a vessel comes ashore, the insurance agent 
 is telegraphed for, and he takes charge of everything. 
 Why, we even buy the wrecks and pay well for 
 them, too. Now and then something is washed up 
 like that coal in front of the house, but it is not 
 often." 
 
 " What do you mean by the stations ?" 
 
 "They are houses built by the Government and 
 placed at regular distances along the. beach. The 
 gun, and rope, and life-boat, and life-car, and all 
 other things that are needed in case of shipwreck, 
 are kept in them. Then there is a stove and coal 
 ready to make a fire, for if a poor wretch got ashore 
 in mid-winter he would soon freeze if he couldn't get 
 to a fire. And if the man who has charge of the 
 station lives two miles off across a bay that he can't 
 cross in a bad storm, what can the poor half-drowned 
 fellows do, if they are too much benumbed to break 
 open the door ? I'd stave it in for them pretty quick 
 if I was there, law- or no law." 
 
 " It is a shame that a matter like that should not 
 be free from politics." 
 
 " So it was once," Bill went on fluently ; for on 
 this subject he felt that his family had a right to be 
 eloquent ; " at one time some department had it in 
 charge that never would either appoint or remove a 
 man on political account ; but that is all changed 
 now, and the men are expected to go out with every
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 241 
 
 administration, and shipwrecked passengers die 
 while political favorites draw the two hundred dol- 
 lars a year pay for the station-master." 
 
 "Now, Bill, stop your talk about the public 
 wrongs, and tell us something more interesting. 
 Have you ever heard one of Bill's ghost stories ?" 
 This inquiry was addressed to the public. 
 
 Bill's face lengthened ; he sat silently nursing his 
 leg and smoking his brierwood pipe, while a shadow 
 seemed to settle on his countenance. " Come, Bill," 
 we responded, " let's have the story." 
 
 Bill answered not, and the shadow deepened, and 
 the smoke was puffed in heavier masses from his 
 lips. 
 
 " Bill is afraid ; he don't like ghosts, and don't 
 dare to talk of them." 
 
 " I am not easily skecred," he answered at last ; 
 " but if you had seen what I have on this shore, you 
 would not talk so easy about it 'Lige, do you re- 
 member the time we saw that ship ? There had been 
 a heavy storm, and when we got up next day early, 
 there lay a vessel on the beach; she must have been 
 most everlastingly a harpin' it." 
 
 " What is that ?" was asked wonderingly, on the 
 utterance of this peculiar expression. 
 
 " Why, she had come clear in over the bar, and 
 must have been going some to do that ; for there 
 she lay, bow on, with her bowsprit sticking way up 
 ashore, just below the station yonder. Her masts 
 were standing, and we clapped on our clothes and 
 started for the beach. The wind was blowin' hard,
 
 242 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 and the sand and drizzle driving in our faces as we 
 walked over, and we kept our heads down most of 
 the time. When we got to the sand-hills we looked 
 up, and the ship was gone. I thought that likely 
 enough, for she must have broken up and gone to 
 pieces soon in that surf, so we hurried along as fast 
 as we could ; and sure enough, when we rounded 
 the point, the little cove in which she lay was full of 
 truck. 'Lige was there, and he saw it as plain as I 
 did. The water was full of drift-boxes, barrels, 
 planks, and all sorts of things, pitching and rolling 
 about ; and some of them had been carried up onto 
 the sand and were strewed about in all directions. 
 
 " It was early, and the day was misty, but we 
 could see plain enough, and we saw all that stuff 
 knocking about as plain as I see you now. There 
 was a big timber in my way a stick well, thirty 
 feet long and two feet or two and a half square, so 
 that I had to raise my foot high to clear it ; I step- 
 ped one leg over, and drew the other along to feel 
 it, bxit it didn't touch anything ; then I stopped and 
 looked down there was no timber there ; I looked 
 back towards the sea the drift had disappeared, the 
 barrels and boxes and truck of one sort or another 
 was gone. There was nothing on shore nor in the 
 water. Now you may laugh, but 'Lige knows 
 whether what I've told you is true." 
 
 "Bill, that is a pretty good story, but it is not the 
 one I meant," persisted the individual who had com- 
 menced the attack. 
 
 " Well, another time, Zeph and I were at work
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 243 
 
 getting the copper bolts out of an old wreck, when 
 we happened to look up and saw two carriages 
 coming along, up the beach. I spoke to Zeph about 
 it, but as they came along slowly, we went on with 
 our work, and when we looked up again there was 
 only one. That came on closer and closer till I 
 could tell the horses ; they were two bays of squire 
 Jones' down at the inlet ; they drove right on to- 
 wards us till they were so near that T did not like 
 to stare the people in the face, and looked down 
 again to my work. There were two men, and I saw 
 them so plain that I should know 'em anywhere. 
 Well, I raised my head a second after, and they 
 were gone ; and there never had been any wagon, 
 for Zeph and I hunted all over the beach to find the 
 tracks in the sand." 
 
 " I guess that was another misty day, and you 
 hadn't had your eye-opener," was the appreciative 
 response. 
 
 " No, it was three o'clock in the day, and bright 
 sunshine ; but at that time, as near as can be, Tommy 
 Smith was drowned down at the inlet, and the very 
 next day at the very same hour, the 'Squire's wagon 
 did come up the beach, with the same two 
 men driving, and the body in a box in the back 
 part." 
 
 " Now, Bill," continued the persistent individual, 
 " this is all very well, but it is not the story. Come, 
 out with it ; you know what I mean." 
 
 Bill fell silent, again looking off into the distance 
 as though he saw something that others could not
 
 244 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 see ; he pulled away nervously on his pipe, which 
 had gone out, hut answered not. 
 
 " Bill's afraid ;" was the tantalizing suggestion. 
 
 "There's Sam," said Bill suddenly ; "he's not afeard 
 of man or devil; ask him what he saw." 
 
 The person referred to was a large, broad-shoul- 
 dered, pleasant-faced man, with a clear blue eye that 
 looked as though it would not quail easily, and he 
 responded at once : 
 
 " I never saw anything ; but one night when I was 
 coming by the cove where the Johanna was cast 
 away, and where three hundred bodies were picked 
 up and buried, I heard a loud scream. It sounded 
 like a woman's voice, and Avas repeated three or 
 four times ; but I couldn't find anything, although I 
 spent an hour hunting among the sand-hills, and it 
 was bright moonlight. It may have been some sort 
 of animal, but I don't know exactly what." 
 
 " Bill's adventure happened in the same neighbor- 
 hood, so let's have it," continued the persistent 
 man. 
 
 " As Sam says," commenced Bill, at last, " the 
 Johanna went ashore one awful north-easter in winter 
 about six miles above here, near Old Jackey's tavern ; 
 she broke up before we could do anything for her, 
 and three hundred men, women, and children for 
 she was an emigrant ship were washed ashore dur- 
 ing the following week ; most of them had been 
 drifted by the set of the tide into the cove, and they 
 were buried there ; so you see it ain't a nice place of 
 a dark night.
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 245 
 
 " I was driving down the beach about a year after 
 she was lost, with my old jagger wagon, and a heavy 
 load on of groceries and stores of one kind or other. 
 It was about one o'clock at night, miguty cold, but 
 bright moonlight ; and I was coining along by the 
 comer of the fence, you know, just above Jackey's, 
 when the mare stopped short. Now, she was just 
 the best beast to drive you ever saw. I could drive 
 her into the bay or right over into the ocean, and 
 she was never skeered at anything. But this time, 
 she come right back in the shafts and began to trem- 
 ble all over ; I gave her a touch of the whip, and she 
 was just as full of spirit as a horse need be, but she 
 only reared up and snorted and trembled worse than 
 ever. So I knew something must be wrong, and 
 looked ahead pretty sharp ; and there, sure enough, 
 light across the road, lay a man. Jackey was a little 
 too fond of rum at that time, and I made up my 
 mind he had got drunk and tumbled down on his 
 way home ; it was cold, and I didn't want to get 
 out of the wagon where I was nicely tucked in, and 
 thought I would drive round out of the road and 
 wake him up with my whip as I passed. I tried to 
 pull the mare off to one side to go by, but she only 
 reared and snorted and trembled, so that I was 
 afraid she would fall. She had a tender mouth, but 
 although I pulled my best I could not budge her ; 
 at last, getting mad, I laid the gad over her just as 
 hard as I could draw it. Instead of obeying the 
 rein, however, she plunged straight on, made a tre- 
 mendous leap over the body, and dragged the wagon
 
 246 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 after her. I pulled her in all I knew how, and no 
 mistake ; but it was no use, and I felt the front wheels 
 strike, lift, and go over him, and then the hind 
 wheels, but I couldn't stop her. That was a heavy 
 load, and enough to crush any one, and as soon as I 
 could fetch the mare down for she had stalled to 
 run I jumped out quick enough then, you may bet 
 your life. I tied her up to the fence, although she 
 was still so uneasy I daresen't hardly leave her, and 
 hurried back to see if I could do anything for Jackey. 
 Would you believe it, there was nothing there ! I 
 tell you I felt the wagon go over him, and what's 
 more, I looked down as I passed and saw his clothes 
 and his hair straggling out over the snow, for he had 
 no hat on ; though I noticed at the time that I didn't 
 see any flesh, but supposed his face was turned from 
 me. There was no rise in the ground and not a 
 cloud in the sky ; the moon was nearly full, and there 
 wasn't any man, and never had been any man there ; 
 but whatever there was, the mare saw it as plain as 
 I did." 
 
 " Now let's turn in," said a sleepy individual, who 
 had first been nodding over Bill's statement of pub- 
 lic wrongs, and had taken several short naps in the 
 course of his ghost story ; " and as there was some- 
 thing said yesterday about a smoke driving away 
 mosquitoes, for heaven's sake let's make a big one ; 
 the infernal pests kept me awake all last night." 
 
 This was excellent advice, and not only was an 
 entire newspaper consumed in our common sleeping 
 apartment, but a quantity of powder was squibbed
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 247 
 
 off, till the place smelt like the antechamber of Tar- 
 tarus. The mosquitoes were expelled or silenced at 
 the cost of a slight suffocation to ourselves, but we 
 gained several hours sleep till the smoke escaped and 
 allowed the villains to return to their prey. 
 
 One sporting day resembles another in its essen- 
 tial features, although not often so entirely as with 
 the Englishman, who, having devoted his life to 
 woodcock shooting, and being called upon to relate 
 his experiences, replied that he had shot woodcock 
 for forty years, but never noticed anything worth re- 
 coi'ding. Our next day, however, was enlivened by 
 sport of an unexpected kind. We had heard there 
 was some dispute about the ownership of the stands ; 
 in fact, that the one occupied by my friend and my- 
 self belonged to the Ortleys, a family represented 
 as decidedly uninviting; while both Bill and the 
 Ortleys claimed that, where another party was 
 located. 
 
 In the disputed stand were .Bill, a New York gen- 
 tleman, who, as events proved, seemed to be some- 
 thing of an athlete, and a sedate, unimpassionable Jer- 
 sey lawyer of considerable eminence. Elijah was 
 with us, when two villanous, red-haired, freckle- 
 skinned objects presented themselves, and, after 
 some preliminary remarks and a refusal on their 
 part of a friendly glass, which is a desperate sign in 
 a Jerseyman, mildly suggested that they would like 
 a little remuneration for the use of the stand. As 
 their suggestion was moderate, reasonable, and just, 
 and they undoubtedly owned the land, we complied,
 
 248 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 and beheld them proceed, to Elijah's great delight, 
 for the same purpose towards the other stand. Elijah 
 prophetically announced they would probably get 
 more than they demanded. 
 
 The other stand was distant about a hundred 
 yards, in full view, and we perceived at once that a 
 commotion was caused by the unexpected arrival. 
 The athletic man was shortly seen outside the blind, 
 flinging his arms wildly about in front of the two 
 Ortley brothers, and, as we were afterwards inform- 
 ed, offering to fight either or both of them. Matters 
 then seemed to progress more favorably, till sud- 
 denly Bill and the younger Ortley emerged, locked 
 in an unfriendly embrace, and commenced dragging 
 each other round the sand-bank, while the demon- 
 strative sportsman was seen dancing actively in front 
 of the other Ortley, and preventing his interference. 
 
 Of course we dropped our guns and hastened 
 across the shallow, intervening water, having just 
 time to perceive that Bill had thrown his adversary 
 and remained on top. The first words we heard were : 
 "Take him off! Oh, my God! take him off. 
 Enough, enough, take him off," from the one on the 
 ground, whose eye the only vulnerable part to un- 
 instructed anger Bill was busily endeavoring to 
 gouge out, while the other shouted frantically: 
 "He is killing rny brother ; let me get to him ; he is 
 gouging his eye out. He Avill kill him, he will kill 
 him." 
 
 ** Never mind," answered the athletic man, swing- 
 ing his arms ominously, and dexterously interposing
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 249 
 
 between the victim and his brother, whenever the 
 latter attempted to dodge past him. " Let him be 
 killed, it would serve him right ; he came over here 
 for a fight, and he shall have enough of ifc if both of 
 his eyes are gouged out." 
 
 Elijah arrived in time to prevent the latter cata- 
 strophe, and being o'f a peaceable and humane dispo- 
 sition, pulled off his brother before anything more 
 serious than a little scratching had occurred. In 
 fact, there is no position in which ignorance renders 
 a person more pitiably inefficient, than in fighting ; 
 and, while a skilful man could have killed his oppo- 
 nent during the time Bill had enjoyed, the latter had 
 really effected nothing worth mentioning. The ugly 
 wretch was awfully frightened, however ; his face 
 being ghostly pale, streaked with bloody red, and he 
 commenced whining at once : 
 
 " I am nothing but a boy, only twenty-two last 
 spring, and he's a man grown." 
 
 " You know boys have to. be whipped to keep 
 them in order," was the consolatory response ; for 
 we naturally took part with our landlord. 
 
 " Gentlemen, just look at me." 
 
 " Don't come so close, you're covered with blood ; 
 keep back, keep back." 
 
 " But look at me ; he's bigger than I am, and I am 
 only a boy." 
 
 " Then you shouldn't strike a man." 
 
 " Oh ! gentlemen, I didn't strike him first, indeed 
 I didn't ; he struck me when I wasn't thinking ; in- 
 deed he did."
 
 250 
 
 THE JEKSEY COAST. 
 
 "Yes," broke in his brother, who was just re- 
 covering from the spell first put upon him by our 
 athlete's continual offers to accommodate him in 
 any way he wished. " Yes, it will be a dear blow 
 for you ; I saw you strike him." 
 
 " No," said the lawyer, advancing for the first time 
 from behind the blind where hehad been an unmoved 
 and impartial umpire of the fray, " you should not 
 say that ; your brother certainly struck first ; I saw 
 him distinctly." His manner was solemn, and con- 
 vincing, and conclusive, taken in connexion with 
 his perfect equanimity during the affair; but, of 
 course, he was met by contradiction and protesta- 
 tion from the two brothers. This dispute would 
 have been endless, but at that moment a fine flock 
 of willets was descried advancing towards the 
 stools. 
 
 " Down, down," every one shouted, and, true to 
 the bayman's instinct, friend and foe crowded down 
 on the sand together, waiting breathlessly the arri- 
 val of the birds. The latter came up handsomely, 
 were received with four barrels, and left several of 
 their number as keepsakes or peace-offerings ; for, 
 of course, anger was dissipated, and the defeated 
 enemy retired amid a few merry suggestions, and 
 the excellent advice that they had better not repeat 
 their joke. 
 
 Such squabbles for it can be called nothing 
 graver lower one's opinion of human kind, and it 
 makes one ashamed to think that two men may hug 
 and pull one another about, and roll on the sand for
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 251 
 
 fifteen minutes, with the best will in the world to 
 do each other all the damage possible, and only in- 
 flict, in the feebleness of uneducated humanity, a few 
 miserable scratches. Any of the lower animals 
 would, in that time, have left serious marks of its 
 anger ; but the pitiful results of these human efforts 
 were, that Bill's beard was pulled and Ortley's face 
 scratched. It makes one blush to think he is a 
 man. 
 
 As our party returned to the blind we had left, 
 Elijah spoke, softly ruminating aloud : 
 
 " Well, it only costs thirty-five dollars anyhow, 
 and it was worth that." 
 
 Our humane, peaceable friend, it seems, had been 
 cast in a similar case, and had to pay six cents 
 damages and thirty-five dollars costs of court. 
 There is probably nothing that has so soothing and 
 pacifying an influence on the New Jersey mind as 
 costs of court. The words alone act like a charm upon 
 a Jerseyman in the acme of frenzy, and are as effec- 
 tive as a policeman in uniform. If a man commits 
 assault and battery, he is fined six cents damages 
 and costs of court ; if he is guilty of trespass it is 
 the same ; if he kisses his neighbor's wife against 
 her will, if he slanders a friend's character, it is 
 always six cents damages and costs of court ; and 
 Jerseymen will probably expect in the next world 
 to get off with six cents damages and costs of court. 
 
 The shooting was excellent during the whole day, 
 and evening found us collected in the bar-room, well 
 satisfied and particularly jocose over the amusing
 
 252 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 pugilistic encounter we had witnessed. It lent point 
 to many a good hit at Bill's expense ; even his wife, 
 who is a fine, resolute-looking woman, saying that 
 if she had seen it sooner, she would have taken a 
 broomstick and flogged them both. The general 
 impression was, she could have made her words 
 gdbd. 
 
 The pleasure of indulging in fun at the expense of 
 a fellow-creature is very great, and Bill's adventure 
 was certainly fair game. When our wit was ex- 
 hausted, and the craving for tobacco mollified by the 
 steady use of our pipes, our thoughts and voices 
 turned to our never-wearying passion, and one of 
 the party commenced : 
 
 "I have shot a number of the birds you call 
 kriekers ; they are a fat bird, but do not seem to 
 stool. I have never before shot them, except occa- 
 sionally on the meado\vs." 
 
 " They don't stool," said Bill, " and only utter a 
 krieking kind of cry ; but in October they come 
 here very thick, and we walk them up over the 
 meadows. Why, you can shoot a hundred a day." 
 
 "A most excellent bird they are, too fat and 
 delicate. They are the latest of the bay-snipe in re- 
 tui'ning from the summer breeding-places; and as 
 they rise and fly from you, they afford extremely 
 pretty shooting. They are sometimes called short- 
 neck, and are, in a gastronomic point of view, the 
 best bay-snipe that is put upon the table." 
 
 " We call the bay-birds usually snipe," said the 
 first speaker ; " but I have been told they are not
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 253 
 
 snipe at all. Refer to Giraud again and give us the 
 truth." 
 
 This fell, of course, to my share, and I com- 
 menced as follows : 
 
 " I read you yesterday about the plovers, and im- 
 mediately after them we find an account of the turn- 
 stone, strepsilas interpres, which is nothing else than 
 our beautiful brant-bird or horse-foot snipe, as it is 
 called farther south, because it feeds on the spawn 
 of the horse-foot. This pretty but unfortunate bird 
 belongs to no genus whatever, and has been to the 
 ornithologists a source of great tribulation. They 
 have sometimes considered it a sandpiper and 
 sometimes not, so you may probably call it what 
 you please ; and as brant-bird is a rhythmical name, 
 it will answer as well as strepsilas interpres / if you 
 have not a fluent tongue, perhaps somewhat better. 
 Of the snipes, or scolopacidce, the only true repre- 
 sentative is the dowitcher, scolopax novebora- 
 censis. 
 
 u Hold on," shouted Bill ; " say that last word 
 over again." 
 
 " Noveboracensis" 
 
 "That is only the half of it; let's have the 
 whole." 
 
 " Scolopax noveboracensis" 
 
 " Scoly packs never borrow a census ; that is a 
 good sized name for a little dowitch, and beats the 
 radish altogether. Go ahead, we'll learn something 
 before we get through." 
 
 " Why, that is only Latin for New York snipe."
 
 254 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 " Oh, pshaw ! " responded Bill, in intense dis 
 gust, "I thought it meant a whole bookful of 
 things." 
 
 " The sandpipers, however, come under the family 
 of snipes, and are called tringoz. Among these are 
 enumerated the robin-snipe and the grass-plover, as 
 I told you before, the black-breast, the krieker, or 
 short-neck, and several scarcer varieties. The yelp- 
 ers and yellow-legs, the tiny teeter, and the willet 
 are tattlers, genus totanus, while the marlin is the 
 godvvit limosa. The sickle-bills, jacks, andfutes are 
 curlews, genus numenms." 
 
 " And now that you have got through," grumbled 
 Bill again, " can you whistle a snipe any better or 
 shoot him any easier? Do you know why he stools 
 well in a south-westerly wind, why one stools better 
 than another, or why any of them stool at all ? Do 
 you know why he flies after a storm, or why some 
 go in flocks and others don't, or why there is usually 
 a flight on the fifteenth and twenty-fifth of August? 
 When books tell us these things, I shall think more 
 of the writers." 
 
 "These matters are not easy to find out; even 
 you gunners, who have been on the bay all your 
 lives, where your fathers lived before you, do not 
 know. But now tell us what other sport you have 
 here." 
 
 " On the mainland there are a good many Eng- 
 lish snipe in spring, while in the fall we catch blue- 
 fish and shoot ducks. The black ducks and teal 
 will soon be along; but ever since the inlet was
 
 THE JEESEY COAST. 255 
 
 closed, the canvas-backs and red-heads have been 
 scarce." 
 
 " What do you mean by the inlet's closing ?" 
 
 " There used to be several inlets across the beach 
 one about ten miles below and then we had 
 splendid oysters and ducks plenty. There came a 
 tremendous storm one winter that washed up the 
 sand and closed the inlet, and so it has remained 
 ever since." 
 
 " Can't they be dredged out ?" 
 
 "The people would pay a fortune to any man 
 who did that, if he could keep it open. In the fall, 
 we go after ducks twenty miles when we want any 
 great shooting; but we kill a good many round 
 here." 
 
 " How do you catch the blue-fish that you spoke 
 of?" 
 
 " They chase the bony-fish along the shore, and 
 when they come close in, you can stand on the 
 beach, and throw the squid right among them. I 
 took sixteen hundred pounds in half a day." 
 
 " Phew !" was the universal chorus. 
 
 " 'Lige was there, and he knows whether that is 
 true. They averaged fifteen pounds apiece. On 
 those occasions, the only question is whether you 
 know IIOAV to land them, and can do it quick 
 enough." 
 
 " Your hands must have been cut to pieces." 
 
 "Not at all; you'll never cut your hands if you 
 don't let the line slip." 
 
 " Did you run up ashore with them ? "
 
 256 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 " No, I had no time for that ; I landed them, hand 
 over hand." 
 
 " Well, after that story it's time we went to bed ; 
 so good-night." 
 
 During that night the mosquitoes, bad as they 
 had been, were more terrible than at any time pre- 
 vious. Favored by the late frequent rains, they 
 had become more numerous than had ever been 
 known on the beach ; and being consequently com- 
 pelled to subdivide to an unusual degree the ordi- 
 narily small supply of food, they were savagely 
 hungry. Sleep was out of the question, and after 
 trying all sorts of devices from gunpowder to mos- 
 quito-nets, the party wandered out of doors, and, 
 scattering in search of a place of retreat, afforded an 
 excellent representation of unhappy ghosts on the 
 banks of the Styx. The shore, near the surf, and the 
 bathing-houses had heretofore been tolerably secure 
 resorts, but, on this unprecedented night, a special 
 meeting of mosquitoes seemed to have been called in 
 that neighborhood. 
 
 Those that tried the ground, and covered them- 
 selves carefully from head to foot, found that the 
 enterprising long-legs disregarded the customary 
 habits of their race, and consented to crawl down 
 their sleeves, up their pants, or through the folds of 
 the blanket. The sand-fleas also were numerous 
 and lively, bounding about in an unpleasantly active 
 way ; and where there were neither mosquitoes nor 
 sand-fleas, the nervous sufferer imagined every grain
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 257 
 
 of stray sand that sifted in through his clothes to I e 
 some malignant, blood-sucking, insect. 
 
 One great advantage, however, followed from this 
 discomfort that we were up betimes next morning 
 and ready for sport that soon proved equal to any 
 we had experienced. In fact, so steady and well 
 sustained a flight of large birds was extremely rare ; 
 before our arrival the shooting had been good, and 
 since excellent. There was a repetition to a great 
 extent of the day previous, in many particulars of 
 flight, number, and character of birds; in infinite 
 modification of circumstance, there was an incessant 
 variety of bewildering sport. 
 
 No two birds ever approach the sportsman's stand 
 in precisely the same way, and there is one round of 
 deliciously torturing uncertainty ; the flock we are 
 most certain of may turn off, the one that has passed 
 and been given up, may return ; the bird that has 
 been carefully covered may escape, another that 
 seems a hopeless chance may fall : it is these minute 
 differences, and this continual variety, that lend the 
 principal charm to the sportsman's life. 
 
 At midday came again the congregation at the 
 house, the discussion over sporting topics, the joke 
 or story, and the comparison of luck. Thus passed 
 the days, alike, yet different, affording undiminished 
 pleasure, excitement, and instruction, with sport 
 admirably adapted to the hot weather, when the 
 cool, shady swamps are deserted by the woodcock. 
 The English snipe have not yet arrived upon the 
 meadows, and the fall shooting is still in prospective ;
 
 258 THE JERSEY COAST. 
 
 the labor is easy, the body can be kept cool ly 
 wading for dead birds, and to those who are, at the 
 best, not vigorous, bay-snipe shooting is a delightful 
 resource. 
 
 Never did mortals pass a pleasanter week than 
 that week at the beach, and it is impossible to chro- 
 nicle all the good shots, to repeat all the amusing 
 stories or merry jokes, or to record all the valuable 
 instruction ; and to obtain an inkling even, the reader 
 had better make a firm resolve that next August will 
 not pass over his head without his devoting at least 
 one week to bay-snipe shooting. When at last the 
 time came to part, and the baggage was packed, and 
 the guns reluctantly bestowed in their cases, we bade 
 our farewell with sincere regret, praying that often 
 thereafter might we have such sport, and meet such 
 companionship. 
 
 It is a long journey to the beach, but it is a longer 
 one back again ; no high hopes buoy up the traveller, 
 regrets accompany him instead no anticipation of 
 grand sport, but the gloomy certainty that it is over 
 for the year ; and although the conveyance to the 
 beach is irregular, there is absolutely none away 
 from it. It is true there are several different routes 
 to and from it, but all by private conveyance, and, 
 rendered by the mosquitoes nearly impracticable. 
 
 Bill harnessed his ponies for, wonderful to say, a 
 few horses and cattle manage to live on the beach 
 and sustain existence in spite of the mosquitoes and 
 we stowed ourselves and our luggage in his well 
 worn wagon. The road lay over the barren beach,
 
 THE JERSEY COAST. 259 
 
 deep and heavy with sand, and hardly distinguishable 
 after a heavy rain ; the one-story shanty, that had 
 been our resting-place, soon faded from view, and 
 we had nothing in prospect but the dreary journey 
 home. 
 
 At the head of the beach we encountered a bathing- 
 party, and were sorely tempted to join the rollicking 
 girls in a frolic among the breakers ; but, by exerting 
 great self-denial, and shutting our eyes to their attrac- 
 tions, much to my companion's disgust, we kept on 
 our course. We dined at the tavern on the road, 
 and having bade farewell to Bill, and engaged ano- 
 ther team, we reached Crab Town by dusk. 
 
 How changed the village seemed to us ! Where 
 was the precious and beautiful freight that had paid 
 us such delicious toll ? Our eyes peered up and 
 down the road, and into the windows of the scat- 
 tered houses ; our ears listened sharply for the music 
 of merry voices and ringing laughter ; our thoughts 
 reverted to that crowded stage, which had so lately 
 borne us through the village. The road was vacant 
 and desolate ; all sound was hushed and still ; grace- 
 ful forms, clad in yielding drapery, were nowhere to 
 be seen ; the dull lights in the windows revealed 
 nothing to our earnest gaze. Our lovely companions 
 were invisible, although we pursued our search per- 
 sistently till late at night, when, weary and discon- 
 solate, we crawled up to bed in a dismal hostelry 
 kept by Huntsinger. Going sporting into Jersey is 
 delightful, but returning is sad indeed.
 
 260 
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 1. Lower mandible. 
 - 2. Upper mandible. 
 
 3. Forehead. 
 
 4. Loral space. 
 
 5. Crown of the head. 
 
 6. Hind part of the head. 
 
 7. Scapulars long feathers 
 
 from shoulders over sides 
 of back. 
 
 8. Smaller wing coverts. 
 
 9. Bend of the wing 
 10. Larger wing coverts. 
 
 11. Tertials, arising from tl.e 
 
 second bone of the wing 
 at the elbow-joint. 
 
 12. Secondaries, from the se- 
 
 cond bone of the wing. 
 
 13. Primaries, from the first 
 
 bone of the whig. 
 
 14. Tibia, the thigh. 
 
 15. Tarsus, the shank. 
 
 16. Tipper tail coverts. 
 
 17. Lower tail coverts. 
 
 18. Tail feathers. 
 
 The length of a bird is measured from the extremity of the 
 bill to the end of the longest tail feather ; the length of the 
 wing is measured from the bend to the tip of the longest quill
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 BAY-BIKDS. 
 
 ALTHOUGH a cursory account of the various bay-birds, 
 their habits and peculiarities, has been given in a 
 previous chapter, it seems desirable to add a more 
 complete, exhaustive, and specific description. This 
 is attempted in the following pages, and although 
 the ornithological characteristics are taken from 
 GiraucTs Birds of Long Island, which seems to 
 have been the resource of all our sporting writers, 
 nothing else is derived from him; but the facts are 
 stated, either upon personal knowledge, which is 
 generally the case, or upon reliable information. 
 
 As to the abundance or scarcity of any particu- 
 lar species, the experience of sportsmen will differ 
 according to the accident of flight, or the locality of 
 their favorite sporting-ground ; and in relation to 
 their shyness or gentleness, much depends upon the 
 time of year and the condition of the weather. In 
 consequence of the confusion of nomenclature, it has 
 been deemed advisable to give the scientific descrip- 
 tion of the common species, each one being placed 
 under its most appropriate name, and to collect 
 together as many designations as could be found to 
 have been applied to them respectively. Never- 
 theless, many names will no doubt be omitted, and
 
 262 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 there will be other birds, and some quite common 
 varieties, that, among bay-men, have no names what- 
 ever. 
 
 It is not intended to furnish a description of all 
 the species of shore-snipe that occasionally are killed, 
 but to supply such information as will enable the 
 sportsman to distinguish the ordinary varieties ; and 
 such facts as have not been fully stated, which are 
 more especially applicable to certain members of this 
 great class, are grouped together under separate 
 heads. Nothing is expected to be added to the 
 ornithological learning of the world, and only such 
 portions of that science are given as may be consi- 
 dered desirable for the ready use of the sportsman 
 in the intelligent pursuit of his pleasures. 
 
 PLOVERS. 
 
 Genus Charadrius, Linn. 
 
 Generic distinctions. Bill short, strong, straight, 
 about the length of the head, which is rather large 
 and prominent in front ; eyes large ; body full ; neck 
 short and rather thick ; wings long ; tail rounded and 
 of moderate length ; toes connected at the base ; hind 
 toe wanting, or consisting of a small knob. 
 
 BLACK-BREAST. 
 
 Bull-Headed Plover. Beetle-Headed Plover. Black-Bellied 
 
 Plover. 
 
 Charadrius Helveticus, Wils. 
 
 This bird is killed along our bays indiscriminately 
 with the other snipe, although it does not stool as
 
 BAY-BIRDS 263 
 
 well as the marlin or yellow-legs. It passes north 
 early in May, when it is often called the black-bel- 
 lied plover, and regarded from its plumage as a dis- 
 tinct variety from the fall bird ; it is then quite shy. 
 In August or September it returns, being more plen- 
 tiful in the latter month, and is often found in great 
 numbers especially at Montauk Point ; and at that 
 period the young, being quite fat, are regarded as 
 delicious eating. It is then greyer in appearance 
 and not so strongly colored as when in full plumage. 
 Before the main flight arrives, scattering individuals 
 are heard uttering their peculiar beautiful and shrill 
 cry, and are seen shyly approaching the stools, or 
 darting round not far off, and yet afraid to draw 
 close to them. Its head is large and round, giving 
 rise to the name of bull-head, which is common on 
 the coast of New Jersey, although in New York it 
 is generally known as black-breast. 
 
 " Specific Character. Bill stout, along the gap 
 one inch and five-sixteenths ; length of tarsi one inch 
 and five-eighths. Adult male with the bill black, 
 strong, shorter than the head ; cheeks, loral space, 
 throat, fore-neck, breast, with a large portion of the 
 abdomen black ; hind part of the abdomen and flanks 
 white ; forehead, with a broad band passing down 
 the sides of the neck and breast, white ; crown, oc- 
 ciput, and hind-neck greyish white, spotted Avith 
 dusky ; upper parts blackish-brown, the feathers 
 broadly tipped with white ; eye encircled with white ; 
 tail and upper tail-coverts white, barred with black, 
 the former tipped with white ; lower tail-coverts
 
 2G4 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 white, the outer feather spotted with black; pri- 
 maries and their coverts blackish-brown, the latter 
 margined with white ; primary shafts about two- 
 thirds from the base, white, tips blackish -brown ; 
 part of the inner webs of the outer primaries white ; 
 both webs of the inner primaries partially white ; 
 secondaries white at the base, margined at the same ; 
 feet black ; toes connected by a membrane. Female 
 smaller. Young with the upper plumage greyish- 
 brown, the feathers spotted with white ; throat, fore- 
 neck, and upper part of the breast greyish- white, 
 streaked with dusky ; rest of the lower parts white. 
 Length of adult male eleven inches and three quar- 
 ters, wing seven and a half." Giraufts Birds of 
 Long Island. 
 
 AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. 
 
 Frost Bird, Greenback. 
 Qharadrius Pluvialis, Wils. 
 
 This bird furnishes great sport at Montauk Point, 
 when the fortunate sportsman happens to arrive 
 after a fierce north-easter early in September and 
 during one of those wonderful flights that occasion- 
 ally occur. They come readily to the decoys which 
 are placed in the open upland fields, and were once 
 killed in great numbers on Hempstead plains before 
 cultivation ejected them. A large number of de- 
 coys should be used, for they are not so easily seen 
 as when set in the water. After alighting, the gold- 
 en plover runs with great activity in pursuit of the
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 265 
 
 insects, mostly grasshoppers, on which it feeds ; and 
 when killed it constitutes a prime delicacy for the 
 table, and brings a high price in market. It passes 
 to the northward in the latter part of April, and re- 
 turns in the early part of September. Its general 
 color on the back is greenish, and it has a distinct 
 light stripe alongside of the eye. They often con- 
 gregate in immense numbers, and I have certainly 
 seen a thousand in a flock. 
 
 " Specific Character. Bill rather slender ; along 
 the gap one inch and an eighth ; tarsi one and nine- 
 sixteenths. Adult with the bill black, much slighter 
 than C. helveticus ; forehead, and a band over the eye, 
 extending behind the eye, white ; upper parts, includ- 
 ing the crown, brownish-black, the feathers marked 
 with spots of golden yellow and dull white ; quills 
 and coverts dark ~ greyish-brown ; secondaries paler 
 the inner margined with yellowish-white ; tail 
 feathers greyish-brown, barred with paler, the central 
 with dull yellow; shafts of the wing quills white 
 towards the end, which, with their bases, are dark 
 brown ; lower parts brownish-black, though in gene- 
 ral we find them mottled with brown, dull white, and 
 black ; lower tail-coverts white, the lateral marked 
 with black ; feet bluish-grey. Late in autumn, the 
 golden markings on the upper parts are not so dis- 
 tinct, and the lower parts are greyish-blue. Length, 
 ten inches and a half, wing seven and one-eighth." 
 Giraud.
 
 2G6 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 BEACH-BIRD. 
 
 Piping Plover. 
 Charadrius Hiaticula, Wils. 
 
 The beach-bird, as its name implies, prefers the 
 beaches to the meadows, and follows each retreating 
 wave of ocean surf in pursuit of its prey, escaping 
 with amazing agility from the next swell. It is a 
 pretty little bird, not often associating in flocks, and 
 on hazy days coming well to the decoys, which 
 should be placed near to the surf, while the sports- 
 man conceals himself by digging a hollow in the 
 loose sand. Although these birds are small, they 
 are plump and well flavored, and when flying rapid- 
 ly on a level with the^flashing breakers, amid the 
 noise and confusion of old ocean's roar, are by no 
 means easy to kill. They are present with us more 
 or less all summer, their diminutive size tending to 
 protect them from destruction. 
 
 " Specific Character. Bill shorter than the head ; 
 at base orange color, towards the end black; fore- 
 neck and cheeks pure white, bordered above with 
 black ; rest of the head very pale brown. Adult 
 male with the bill short, orange at the base, anterior 
 to the nostrils black; forehead white, with a band of 
 black crossing directly above ; upper part of the head, 
 hind neck, back, scapulars, and wing coverts, pale 
 brown ; rump white, the central feathers tinged with 
 brown ; tail brown, white at base, tipped with the 
 same ; lateral feathers pure white the next with a 
 spot of blackish-brown near the end ; upper tail
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 267 
 
 coverts white ; primaries brown ; a large portion of 
 the inner webs white ; a spot of the same on the 
 outer webs of the inner quills ; secondaries white, 
 with a large spot of brown towards the ends ; lower 
 surface of the wings white, a black band round the 
 lower part of the neck, broadest on the sides where 
 it terminates; entire lower plumage white. Female 
 similar, with the band on the neck brown. Length 
 seven inches, wing four and a half." Giraud. 
 
 KlLDEEB. 
 
 Charadrius Vodferus, Wils. 
 
 A worthless bird, furnishing no sport, and poor 
 eating. 
 
 " Specific Character. A band on the forehead pass- 
 ing back to the eye ; a line over the eye, upper part 
 of the neck all round, and a band on the lower part 
 of the fore-neck, white ; above and below the Litter, 
 a broad black band; rump and upper tail-coverts 
 orange red. Adult with the bill black ; at the base 
 a band of blackish-brown ; on the forehead a band 
 of white passing back to the eye ; directly above a 
 band of black; rest of the head brown, with a 
 band of white behind the eye ; throat white ; a broad 
 band of the same color encircling the upper part of 
 the neck ; middle of the neck encircled with black, 
 much broader on the fore-neck ; below which, on 
 the fore-neck, a band of white, followed by a band 
 of black on the lower neck, the feathers of which are 
 tipped with white, of which color are the breast,
 
 268 BAY-BIKDS. 
 
 abdomen, under tail-coverts, and sides, the latter 
 faintly tinged with yellow ; tail rather long, round- 
 ed ; the outer feathers white, barred with brownish- 
 black, their tips white, with a single spot of black- 
 ish-brown on the outer web ; the rest pale reddish- 
 brown at the base, changing into brownish-black 
 towards the ends, which are white ; some of the in- 
 ner feathers tipped with yellowish-brown ; the mid- 
 dle feathers are plain brown, with a darker spot 
 towards the ends, which are slightly tipped with 
 white ; upper tail-coverts and rump reddish-brown, 
 the latter brighter ; upper parts brown, the feathers 
 margined with reddish-brown ; primaries dark brown, 
 with a large portion of the inner web white ; a spot 
 of the same color on the outer webs towards the tips, 
 excepting the first two; their coverts blackish-brown 
 tipped with white ; secondaries white, with a large 
 spot of brown towards the ends ; their tips, with 
 those of the primaries, white ; secondary coverts 
 brown, broadly tipped with white. Length ten 
 inches, wing seven inches." Giraud. 
 
 SANDEELING. 
 
 Charadrius Rubidus, Wils. 
 
 "Specific Character. Bill straight, black, along 
 the gap one inch and one-eighth ; length of tarsi one 
 inch ; hind toe wanting. Adult with the bill straight, 
 about as long as the head. Spring plumage, upper 
 parts, with the throat, fore-neck, and upper part of 
 the breast rufous, intermixed with dusky and grey-
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 269 
 
 ish white ; deeper red on the back ; lower part of 
 the breast, abdomen, and sides of the body pure 
 white ; tarsi and feet black ; claws small, compress- 
 ed ; primaries, outer webs, black ; inner webs light 
 brown ; shafts brown at the base, tips black, rest 
 parts white ; secondaries light brown, broadly mar- 
 gined with white. Winter dress, lower parts white ; 
 upper parts greyish-white, intermixed with black or 
 dusky, darkest on the back. Length seven inches 
 and three-quarters, wing four and seven-eighths." 
 Giraud. 
 
 TURNSTONE. 
 Genus Strepsilas. 
 
 Generic Distinctions. Bill shorter than the head, 
 strong, tapering, compressed, and blunt; neck rather 
 short ; body full ; wings long, of moderate breadth, 
 and pointed ; tail round, rather short, and composed 
 of twelve feathers; tarsus equal to the middle toe, 
 and rather stout ; hind toe small, fore-toes free, with 
 a narrow margin. 
 
 BRANT-BIRD. 
 
 Horse-foot Snipe, Turnstone, Beach-Robins. 
 
 Strepsilas Interpres. 
 
 This is a beautiful bird, and stools pretty well, 
 but is rareand mostly solitary ; its young are at Egg 
 Harbor sometimes termed beach-birds. The brant- 
 bird is considered good eating. It feeds on the eggs 
 of the king-crab or horse-foot, which it digs up by 
 jumping in the air and striking with both its feet at
 
 270 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 once into the sand, thus scratching a hole about three 
 inches deep and an inch and a half across. 
 
 " Specific Character. Bill black ; feet orange ; the 
 head and sides of the neck streaked and patched 
 with black and white ; fore part of the neck and 
 upper portion of the sides of the breast, black ; low- 
 er parts, hind part of the back, and upper tail-cov- 
 erts white ; rump dusky ; rest of the upper parts 
 reddish-brown, mottled with black ; primaries dusky ; 
 a band across the wings and the throat white. 
 Young with the head and neck all round, fore part 
 of the back, and sides of the breast, dusky brown, 
 streaked and margined with greyish-white ; wing- 
 coverts and tertials broadly margined with dull red- 
 dish-brown. It can at all times be identified by its 
 having the throat, lower parts, hind part of the back, 
 and the upper tail-coverts white, and the feathers 
 on the rump dusky. Adult with the bill black, 
 throat white, sides of the head mottled with black 
 and white ; crown streaked with black on white 
 ground ; on the hind neck a patch of white ; a patch 
 of black on the sides of the neck, of which color are 
 the fore-neck and the sides of the breast; lower 
 parts white ; tail blackish-brown, white at the base, 
 of which color are the lateral feathers, with a spot 
 of black on the inner vanes near the end the rest 
 margined with reddish-brown, and tipped with 
 white; upper tail-coverts white; hind part of the 
 back white ; the feathers on the rump black ; fore 
 part of the back mottled with black and reddish- 
 brown ; primaries dark brown, inner webs white ;*
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 271 
 
 secondaries broadly edged with white, forming a 
 band on the wings ; outer secondary coverts reddish- 
 brown, inner black; outer scapulars white, with 
 dusky spots; inner scapulars reddish brown. In 
 winter the colors are duller. Length nine inches, 
 wing five and three-quarters." G-iraud. 
 
 SANDPIPER. 
 
 Genus Tringd. 
 
 Generic Distinctions. Bill straight, slender, and 
 tapering, compressed towards the end, and but little 
 longer than the head ; body rather full ; wings very 
 long and pointed ; tail rather short and nearly even ; 
 tarsi moderate ; hind toe very small, and sometimes 
 wanting ; fore toes slender, of moderate length, and 
 generally divided. 
 
 ROBIN-SNIPE. 
 
 Bed-breasted Sandpiper. 
 Tringa Cinerea, Wils. Winter. 
 Tringd Rufa, Wils. Spring. 
 
 This delicious and beautiful bird, although far 
 from plentiful, furnishes excellent sport, coming 
 readily to stool, and flying regularly and steadily. It 
 mostly affects the marshy islands lying between the 
 salt water creeks, and derives its name from a 
 fancied resemblance to the robin, as he is termed 
 among us. It is always gentle, occasionally abun- 
 dant, and generally fat and tender ; by reason of its
 
 272 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 steady flight it is not difficult to kill ; and its food, 
 mostly shell-fi.sh, does not contribute an unpleasant 
 flavor to its flesh. It arrives from the north about 
 the middle of August, and often lingers for some 
 time on the meadows. As the season advances its 
 plumage becomes paler, till it acquires the name of 
 white robin-snipe although I have often seen them 
 late in August of the most beautiful and strongly 
 marked coloring, the breast being a rich brownish 
 red and the back a fine grey. 
 
 The robin-snipe is of about the size of the dow- 
 itcher, with a shorter and more pointed bill, and 
 is killed indiscriminately on the stools with the 
 other bay-birds. Its call consists of two notes, and 
 is sharp and clear ; when well imitated, it will often 
 attract the confiding snipe to the gunner, exposed 
 in full view, and without decoys. This bird is very 
 beautiful, and a great favorite. 
 
 "Specific Character. Bill straight, longer than the 
 head ; tarsi one inch and three-sixteenths long ; 
 rump and upper tail-coverts white, barred with 
 dark brown ; region of the vent and the lower tail- 
 coverts white, with dusky markings. In spring the 
 upper parts are ash-grey, variegated with black and 
 pale yellowish-red ; lower parts, including the throat 
 and fore-neck, brownish-orange. In autumn the 
 upper parts are ash-grey, margined with dull white ; 
 rump and upper tail-coverts barred with black and 
 white ; lower parts white ; the sides of the body 
 marked with dusky ; a dull white line over the eye. 
 Adult in spring bill black ; a broad band of reddish
 
 E
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 275 
 
 brown commences at the base of the upper mandiUe, 
 extends half-way to the eye, where it changes to 
 reddish-brown ; upper part of head and the hind 
 neck dusky, the feathers margined with greyish 
 white a few touches of pale reddish-brown on the 
 latter ; throat, fore-neck, breast, and abdomen red- 
 dish-brown ; vent white ; lower tail coverts whit'.', 
 spotted with dusky ; upper plumage blackish-brown, 
 upper tail-coverts barred with black and white; tail 
 pale brown, margined with white ; primary coverts 
 black, tipped with white; secondary coverts grey- 
 ish-brown, margined with white. Young with the 
 upper parts greyish-brown ; the feathers with cen- 
 tral dusky streaks, a narrow line of cinnamon-color 
 towards their margins, which are dull white ; the 
 lower parts ash-grey. Length of adult, ten inches ; 
 wing, six and three-quarters." Giraud. 
 
 UPLAND PLOVER. 
 
 Grey, Grass, or Field Plover. 
 
 Bartram's Sandpiper. 
 Tringd Bartramia, Wils. 
 
 This bird, although scientifically not a plover, is, 
 by its habits, entitled to an appellation that common 
 consent has bestowed upon it. It is found upon the 
 uplands, never frequenting the marshes except by 
 crossing them while migrating, and feeds, not on 
 shell-fish or the innumerable minute insects that live 
 in sand and salt mud, but on the grasshoppers and 
 seeds of the open fields. It never takes the slightest
 
 276 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 notice of the stools, is comparatively a solitary bird, 
 and although continually uttering its melodious cry, 
 does not heed a responsive call. 
 
 On the -eastern extremity of Long Island, and 
 along the coast of New England, are vast rolling 
 and hilly stretches of land, where there are no trees 
 and little vegetation, besides a short thin grass, and 
 here the plovers rest and feed. Tiiey migrate to the 
 southward in August, and appear about the same 
 time scattered from Nantucket to New Jersey. In 
 spite of their shyness and the difficulty of killing 
 them, they are pursued relentlessly by man with 
 every device that he finds will outwit their cunning 
 or deceive their vigilance. 
 
 Rhode Island has long been one of their favorite 
 resorts, but has been overrun with gunners, who 
 follow the vocation either for sport or pleasure, and 
 there, for many years, the grey plover were killed 
 in considerable quantities. Many are still found in 
 the same locality, or further east, as well as at 
 Montauk Point; but at Hempstead Plains, where 
 they were once found quite numerous, they appear no 
 longer ; and the eastern shore of New Jersey being 
 unsuited to their habits, they rarely sojourn or even 
 pause upon it. They travel as well by night as by 
 day ; and in the still summer nights their sweet trill- 
 ing cry may be heard at short intervals ; while dur- 
 ing the day they will often be seen in small bodies, or 
 uingly, winging their way rapidly towards the south. 
 
 They are wary, fly rapidly, and are difficult to 
 shoot, and, were it not for one peculiarity, would
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 277 
 
 escape almost scatheless. Alighting only in the open 
 fields, where the thin grass reveals every enemy and 
 exposes every approaching object to their view; 
 readily alarmed at the first symptom of danger, and 
 shunning the slightest familiarity with man, they are 
 impossible to reach except with laborious and pain 
 ful creeping that no sportsman cares to undertake. 
 Not sufficiently gregarious or friendly in their na- 
 ture to desire the company of wooden decoys, they 
 cannot be lured within gunshot ; and it is only 
 through their confidence in their fellow-beasts that 
 their destruction can be accomplished. 
 
 A horse, they know, has no evil design, does not 
 live on plover, and may be permitted to come and 
 go as he pleases ; a horse drawing a wagon is to be 
 pitied, not feared ; and, most fortunately, the birds 
 cannot conceive that a man would be mean enough 
 to hide in that wagon, and drive that horse in an 
 ingenious manner round and round them, every 
 time narrowing the circle till he gets within shot. 
 Man, however, is ready for any subterfuge to gain 
 his plover ; and, seated on the tail-board, or a place 
 behind prepared for the purpose, he steps to the 
 ground the moment the wagon stops, and as the 
 bird immediately rises, fires being often compelled, 
 in spite of his ingenuity, to take a long shot. 
 
 Even in this mode no large number of birds is 
 killed, and by creeping or stalking few indeed are 
 obtained. One inventive genius made an imitation 
 cow of slats and canvas painted to represent the 
 living animal, and, mounting it upon his shoulders,
 
 278 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 was often able to approach without detection ; 
 when near enough, or if the bird became alarmed, 
 he cast off his false skin and used his fowling-piece. 
 This was certainly an original and successful mode of 
 modifying an idea derived from the times of ancient 
 Troy. 
 
 This bird is so delicious and so highly prized by 
 the epicure, that no pains are spared in its capture ; 
 it is by many superior judges regarded as the rich- 
 est and most delicately flavored of the birds of 
 America ; while its timid and wary disposition ren- 
 ders it the most difficult to kill. It is, therefore, 
 justly esteemed the richest prize of the sportsman 
 and the gourmand, and holds as high a rank in the 
 field as in the market. 
 
 It is not, properly speaking, a bay-bird ; but as it 
 is frequently shot from the stand when passing near 
 the decoys, these few remarks concerning it are in- 
 serted. It is essentially an upland bird, although 
 from the nature of its migration it passes along the 
 coast and occasionally far out at sea. 
 
 " Specific Character. Bill slender, rather longer 
 than the head ; tarsi one inch and seven-eighths ; 
 neck rather long, slender ; axillars distinctly barred 
 with black and greyish-white ; upper parts dark 
 brown, margined with yellowish-brown ; fore-neck 
 and fore part of the breast with arrow-shaped mark- 
 ings ; rest of the lower parts yellowish -white. 
 Adult with the bill slender, yellowish-green, dusky 
 at the tip ; upper part of the head dark brown, with 
 a central yellowish-brown line, the feathers mar-
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 279 
 
 gincd with the same color ; hind part and sides of 
 the neck yellowish-brown, streaked with dusky; 
 fore part of the neck and breast paler, with pointed 
 streaks of dusky ; sides of the body barred with the 
 same; rest of lower parts yellowish- white; lower 
 wing-coverts white, barred with bru\vi;bh-black ; 
 upper plumage dark-brown, margined with yellow- 
 ish-brown, darker on the hind part of the back; 
 primaries dark-brown ; coverts the same color; inner 
 webs of the primaries barred with white, more par- 
 ticularly on the first the shaft of which is white ; 
 the rest brown, all tipped with white ; secondaries 
 more broadly tipped with the same; coverts and 
 scapulars dark-brown, margined with yellowish- 
 brown, and tipped with white ; tail barred with 
 black and yellowish-brown, tipped with white ; mid- 
 dle feathers darker, tipped with black. Length ten 
 inches and a half, wing six and five-eighths." 
 Giraud. 
 
 RED-BACKED SANDPIPER. 
 
 Winter Snipe. Black-breast. 
 Tringd Alpina, Wils. 
 
 This bird absolutely has no common name. 
 
 ''Specific Character. Bill about one-third longer 
 than the head, bent towards the end ; length of tarsi, 
 one inch. Adult with the bill black one-third 
 longer than the head, slightly bent towards the end, 
 and rather shorter than that of T. Subarquata ; 
 upper part of the head, back, and scapular, chestnut-
 
 280 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 red, the centre of each feather black, which, color 
 occupies a large portion of the scapulars; wing- 
 coverts and quills greyish-brown ; the bases and tip 
 of the secondaries and parts of the outer webs of 
 the middle primaries, white ; forehead, sides of thn 
 head, 'and hind neck, pale reddish-grey, streaked 
 with dusky ; fore neck and upper part of breast 
 greyish-white, streaked with dusky; on the lower 
 part of the breast a large black patch ; abdomen 
 white ; lower tail coverts white, marked with dusky ; 
 tail light-brownish grey, streaked the central fea- 
 thers darker. 
 
 " Winter dress, upper parts brownish-grey ; throat, 
 greyish-white ; fore part and sides of neck, sides of 
 the head, and sides of the body, pale brownish-grey, 
 faintly streaked with darker; rest of the lower parr* 
 white. Length, seven inches and a half; wing, four 
 and an eighth." Giraud. 
 
 LONG-LEGGED SANDPIPER 
 
 Peep, Blind Snipe, Frost Snipe, Stilt. 
 
 Tringd Himantopus. 
 
 This bird also is nameless : it is rare, although 1 
 have killed quite a number of them, and I believe it> 
 numbers are increasing ; it rarely consorts in flocks 
 of more than five or six, stools readily, and is often 
 mistaken for the yellow-legs. 
 
 " Specific Character : Bill about one-third longer 
 than the head, slightly arched ; length of tarsi, on<? 
 inch and throe-eighths. Adult, with the upper part"
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 281 
 
 brownish-black, the feathers margined with reddish 
 white ; the edges of the scapulars with semiform 
 markings of the same ; rump and upper tail-coverts 
 white, transversely barred with dusky ; tail, light 
 grey, the feathers white at the base and along the 
 middle ; primary quills and coverts brownish-black 
 inner tinged with grey ; the shaft of the outer pri- 
 mary, white ; secondaries, brownish-grey, margined 
 with reddish-white, the inner dusky; abroad whitish 
 line over the eye ; loral space dusky ; auriculars, 
 pale brownish-red ; fore part and sides of neck, 
 greyish white, tinged with red, and longitudinally 
 streaked with dusky ; the rest of the lower parts, 
 pale reddish, transversely barred with dusky ; the 
 middle of the breast and the abdomen without 
 markings; legs long and slender, of a yellowish- 
 green color. In autumn, the plumage duller, of a 
 more greyish appearance, and the reddish markings 
 wanting, excepting on the sides of the head, and a 
 few touches on the scapular. Length, nine inches ; 
 wing, five." Giraud. 
 
 RING-NECK. . 
 
 American Ring Plover. 
 Tringa Hiaticula, Wils. 
 
 This is a small, but delicate, fat, and pretty bird ; it 
 does not stool well, and accompanies the small snipe. 
 
 " Specific Character. Bill shorter than the head ; 
 base, orange color, towards the point, black ; a broad 
 band on the forehead white, margined below with
 
 282 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 a narrow black band, above with a broad band of 
 the same color ; rest part of the head wood-brown ; 
 lateral toes connected by a membrane as far as the 
 first joint ; inner toes, about half that distance. 
 Adult male with the bill flesh color at base, anterior 
 to the nostrils black ; a line of black commences at 
 the base of the upper mandible, passes back to the 
 eye, curving downward on the sides of the neck ; a 
 band on the fore part of the head pure white ; fore 
 part of crown, black ; occiput, wood-brown ; chin, 
 throat, and fore neck, passing round on the hind 
 neck, pure white ; directly below, on the lower por- 
 tion of the neck, a broad band of black ; upper 
 plumage, wood-brown ; primaries, blackish-brown ; 
 shafts, white blackish-brown at their tips; secon- 
 daries slightly edged with white on the inner webs ; 
 outer webs, neai*est to the shafts, an elongated spot 
 of white ; wing-coverts wood-brown ; secondary 
 coverts broadly tipped with white ; breast, abdo- 
 men, sides, and lower tail-coverts, pure white ; tail 
 brown, lighter at the base ; outer feathers white 
 the rest broadly tipped with white, excepting the 
 middle pair, which are slightly tipped with the 
 same. Female similar, with the upper part of the 
 head and the band on the neck brown. Length, 
 seven inches and a quarter; wing five." Giraud.
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 283 
 
 KRIEKER. 
 
 Meadow Snipe, Fat Bird, Short Neck, Jack Snipe, Pec- 
 toral Sandpiper. 
 
 Tringa Pectoralis, Aud. 
 
 This is an excellent bird, remaining in the meadowa 
 till October, and becoming fat, rich, and fine fla- 
 vored, but unfortunately it will not come to the 
 stools. Although frequently associating in flocks, it 
 can hardly be said to be truly gregarious, and is" as 
 often found with the different varieties of small snipe 
 as with its own number. It is quite a difficult bird to 
 kill when on the wing, its flight being rapid and 
 irregular, and its size small ; but when it becomes 
 fat and lazy, after a long residence in well supplied 
 feeding-grounds, not only is its flight slower and it- 
 self easier to hit, but it is often shot sitting. Its 
 general color is grey, with white on the abdomen ; 
 and its size varies greatly according to its age and 
 condition, some being of more than double the size 
 of others. As a natural consequence, considerable 
 practice is required to distinguish it readily from the 
 ox-eyes by which it is often surrounded, when the 
 meadow grass hides it, in a measure, from view. It 
 feeds and dwells altogether in the meadows, finding 
 its food in the stagnant water collected upon their 
 surface, and is only plentiful when these are wet. 
 When alarmed, it rises rapidly, and makes off in a 
 zigzag way, that reminds the sportsman of the flight 
 of English snipe; and early in the season it is wild 
 and shy. It occasionally passes over the stools, but
 
 284 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 never pauses or seems to notice them ; and for this 
 reason, in spite of its epicurean recommendations, 
 it is generally neglected. In the cool days of Sep- 
 tember and October, when the mosquitoes have sno- 
 cumbed in a measure to the frost, its pursuit over 
 the open meadows is pleasant and exhilarating. It 
 is often killed to the number of eighty in a day, and 
 is so fat that its body is absolutely round. 
 
 " Specific Character. Bill straight, base orange- 
 green ; length of tarsi one inch and one-sixteenth ; 
 upper parts brownish-black, edged with reddish- 
 brown ; throat white ; fore part of neck and upper 
 part of the breast light brownish-grey, streaked with 
 dusky ; rest of lower parts, including the lower tail- 
 coverts, white. Adult with the bill straight ; top 
 of the head dark-brown, intermixed with black ; 
 sides of the head, neck, and a large portion of the 
 breast, greyish-brown, streaked with dusky; chin 
 white ; a streak of dark brown before the eye, con- 
 tinuing to the nostril, directly above a faint line ot 
 white; back dark-brown; feathers margined with 
 white; primary quills dark-brown shaft of the first 
 white ; outer secondaries slightly edged with white ; 
 tail-feathers brown, margined with brownish-white 
 two middle feathers darker, longest, and more 
 pointed ; lower part of the breast, abdomen, and 
 sides of the body and under tail-coverts white ;' feet 
 dull yellow ; tibia bare, about half the length. 
 Female, the general plumage lighter. Length nine 
 inches and a half, wing five and a quarter.'' 
 Giraud.
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 285 
 
 OX-EYE. 
 
 Tringa Semipalmata, Wils. 
 
 *' Specific Character. Bill rather stout, broad 
 towards the point ; along the gap about one inch; 
 length of tarsi seven-eighths of an inch; bill and 
 legs black ; toes half webbed. Adult with the bill 
 siender, about the length of the head dark-green, 
 nearly approaching to black ; head, sides, and hind- 
 part of neck ash-grey, streaked with dusky ; upper 
 parts blackish-brown, the feathers edged with 
 greyish- white ; secondary coverts tipped with white; 
 primary coverts brownish-black, as are the feathers 
 011 the rump ; tipper tail-coverts the same ; wing- 
 quills dusky, their shafts white; tail-feathers ash- 
 grey, the inner webs of the middle pair much darker ; 
 over the eye a white line ; lower parts white ; legs 
 black. Length six inches and a half, wing four." 
 Qiraud. 
 
 This and the following variety are generally con- 
 founded by bay-men ; and being too small to 
 demand much consideration, and never shot un- 
 less huddled together, so that a large number 
 may be bagged, they are called promiscuously by the 
 odd name ox-eye. They are fat, and almost as good 
 eating when in prime order as the reed-bird. 
 
 OX-EYE. 
 
 Wilson's Sandpiper. 
 Tringd Pusilla, Wils. 
 
 " Specific Character. Bill along the gap three-
 
 286 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 quarters of an inch, slender ; tarsi three-quarters of 
 an inch ; legs yellowish-green. Adult with the bill 
 bro wnish- black ; upper part of the breast grey- 
 brown, mixed with white ; back and upper parts 
 black; the whole plumage above broadly edged 
 with bright bay and yellow ochre ; primaries black 
 greater coverts the same, tipped with white ; tail 
 rounded, the four exterior feathers on each side dull 
 white the rest dark- brown ; tertials as long as 
 the primaries ; head above dark-brown, with paler 
 edges ; over the eye a streak of whitish ; belly and 
 vent white. Length five inches and a half, wing 
 three and a half. With many of our birds we ob- 
 serve that individuals of the same species vary in 
 length, extent, and sometimes differ slightly in their 
 bills, even with those which have arrived at 
 maturity. On consulting ornithological works, we 
 notice that there are no two writers whose 
 measurement is in all cases alike. With specimens 
 of the Wilson's sandpiper, we find in their pro- 
 portions greater discrepancy than in many other 
 species and out of these differences we are inclined 
 to the opinion that two spurious species have been 
 created." Giraud. 
 
 TATLEB. 
 Q-enus Tetanus. 
 
 Generic Distinctions. Bill longer than the head, 
 straight, hard and slender ; neck slender, and both it 
 and body rather long ; wings long and pointed ; tail 
 short and rounded ; legs long ; hind-toe very small,
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 287 
 
 and the anterior ones connected at the base by 
 webs, the inner being slightly webbed. 
 
 WELLET. 
 
 Semipalmated Tatler. 
 Totanus Semipalmalus, Lath. 
 Scolopax Semipalmata, Wils. 
 
 This is a fine, large, and beautiful bird ; the 
 sharply distinct white and black of its wings con- 
 trasting admirably with the reddish-brown tints of 
 the marlin and sickle-bills with which it often 
 associates ; it stools well, flying steadily, and often 
 returning after the first, and even second visit ; but 
 even when fat, it is tough and ill-flavored. It con- 
 gregates in large flocks, and reaches the Middle 
 States on its southern journey in the latter part of 
 August. Its cry is a fierce wild shriek, which is 
 rarely, if ever, accurately imitated ; but it responds 
 to the call of the sickle-bill, and when once headed 
 for the stools, rarely alters its course. In exposed 
 situations it is shy and difficult of approach, like 
 most of the shore-birds, which, although they come 
 up so unsuspiciously to the decoys, are wary of the 
 gunner, and rarely permit him to crawl within 
 range of them. 
 
 " Specific Character. Secondaries and basal part 
 of the primaries white ; toes connected at base by 
 broad membranes. Adult with the head and neck 
 brown, intermixed with greyish- white ; breirst and 
 sides of the body spotted, and waved with brown
 
 288 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 on white ground; abdomen white; tail-coverts 
 white, barred with brown ; tail greyish-brown, 
 barred with darker brown the outer two feathers 
 lighter ; rump brown ; fore part of the back and 
 wing-coverts brown, largely spotted with dull white ; 
 primaries blackish-brown, broadly banded with 
 white ; secondaries white. Length fifteen inches 
 and a half, wing eight." Giraud. 
 
 YELPEB. 
 
 Big Yellow-Legs Greater Yellow-Shanks Tell- tale Tatler. 
 Totanus Vociferus, Wils. 
 
 This is one of the most numerous of the bay- 
 birds, and among the most highly prized for its 
 sport-conferring properties. It stools well, although 
 occasionally suspicious, and will often drop like a 
 stone from the clouds, where it is fond of flying, upon 
 receiving a response to its strong, clear, and easily 
 imitated cry. It will also frequently come within 
 shot in the open, when the sportsman is unaided by 
 his decoys. Its flight is uneven, being often slow 
 when approaching or pausing over the stools, and 
 then exceedingly rapid and irregular when alarmed ; 
 and if there are no stools to make the Yelper hesi- 
 tate, it has a bobbing motion, as if searching for the 
 origin of the call, that makes it exceedingly difficult 
 to kill. Moreover, it is vigorous, and will carry off 
 much shot, as in fact is the habit with all the shore- 
 birds, and is tough and sedgy on the table.
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 289 
 
 It does not associate in largo flocks, but roams 
 about in parties of three or four. 
 
 "Specific Character. Bill along the ridge two 
 and a quarter inches ; tarsi two and a half; legs yel- 
 low. Adult with the bill black, at the base bluish; 
 upper part of the head, loral space, chedks, and neck, 
 streaked with brownish-black and white ; throat 
 white ; a white line from the bill to the eye ; a white 
 ring round the eye; breast and abdomen white, 
 spotted and barred with brownish-black ; sides and 
 tail-coverts the same ; lower surface of the primaries 
 light grey upper brownish-black, the inner spotted 
 white ; wing-coverts and back brown, spotted with 
 white, and dusky ; scapulars the same ; tail brown, 
 barred with white. Winter plumage, the upper 
 parts lighter larger portion of the breast and abdo- 
 men white ; sides of the body barred with dusky. 
 Length, fourteen inches; wing, seven and a quar- 
 ter." Giraud. 
 
 YELLOW-LEGS. 
 
 Little Yellow-Legs Yellow-Shanks Tatler. 
 
 Totanus Flavipes, Lath. 
 Scolopax Flavipes, Wilson. 
 
 This bird in appearance is almost identical with 
 the yelper, except that it is much smaller, not 
 being more than half as large. It has several calls, 
 consisting of one or more flute-like and shrill notes, 
 which arc rather difficult to imitate. It is probably 
 the most plentiful of all the bay-snipe, making its 
 summer visit in July, and continuing to arrive till
 
 290 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 late in September. It collects in immense flocks, 
 and stools excellentlv, but its flight is irregular and 
 
 *f * ~ O 
 
 rapid, and when frightened, it darts about in a con- 
 fusing way that often baffles the sportsman. When 
 wounded it will swim away, and, if possible, crawl 
 into the grass to hide. 
 
 Although a pleasant bird to shoot, it is unattrac- 
 tive on the table, even when in best condition, unless 
 killed along the. fresh water, where it attains an 
 agreeable and delicate flavor. Both it and the 
 yelper are found in considerable numbers on the 
 marshy shores of the western lakes, where it and the 
 other smaller bay-birds are called, indiscriminately, 
 plover. 
 
 Wonderful stories are told of the number of yel- 
 low-legs killed at one shot, and as it is a small bird, 
 these are probably not exaggerated. By Wilson 
 the yellow-legs, the yelper, and willet are classed 
 among the Scolopacidce, or snipe, but the other orni- 
 thologists have erected a separate genus for them. 
 
 " /Specific Character. Bill along the ridge one 
 inch and three-eighths ; length of tarsi one inch and 
 seven-eighths; legs yellow. Adult with the bill 
 black; throat white; upper part of the head, lores, 
 cheeks, hind part and side parts of the neck, deep 
 brownish-grey, streaked with greyish-white; eye 
 encircled with white, a band of the same, color from 
 the bill to the eye ; fore neck, sides of the body, and 
 upper pare of the breast, greyish-white, streaked 
 with greyish-brown; lower part of the breast and 
 abdomen white ; lower tail-coverts white, the outer
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 291 
 
 feathers barred with brown ; scapulars and fore part 
 of the back brown, the feathers barred and spotted 
 with black and white ; primaries blackish-brown, the 
 shaft of the outer brownish- white, whiter towards the 
 tip, the rest dark-brown ; secondaries margined with 
 white ; hind part of the back brownish-grey ; tail 
 barred with greyish-brown, white at the tip ; legs, 
 feet, and toes, yellow ; claws black. Length, ten 
 inches and three-quarters ; wing, six. Young with 
 the legs greenish and by those who have not recog- 
 nised it as the young of the year, I have heard the 
 propriety of its name questioned.'' Giraud. 
 
 GODWTT. 
 
 Genus Limosa. 
 
 Generic Distinctions. Bill very long, a little re- 
 curved from the middle, rather slender, and with the 
 lower mandible the shorter. Wings long and very 
 acute ; tail short and even ; legs long ; toes four, and 
 rather slender, the hind one being small and the 
 middle toe the longest ; anterior toes connected at 
 the base by webs, the outer web being much the 
 larger. 
 
 MARLIN. 
 
 Great Marbled Godwit. 
 Limosa Fedoa, Linn. 
 Scolopax JFedoa, Wils. 
 This is the gentlest and most abundant of the
 
 292 
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 large birds, approaching the decoys with great con- 
 fidence and returning again and again, till frequently 
 the entire flock is killed. In color it is a reddish- 
 brown, lighter on the abdomen,, and its flight is 
 steady and rather slow. Although better eating 
 than the willet, and very rich and juicy, its flesh 
 cannot be called delicate. The ring-tailed marlin 
 or Hudsonian Godwit, Limosa Hudsonica, Lath. 
 is a finer but much scarcer bird, and resembles some- 
 what in color the willet, but has the marlin bill, 
 which is longer than that of the last-named spe- 
 cies. 
 
 " Specific Character. Bill at base yellow, towards 
 the end blackish-brown ; upper parts spotted and 
 barred with yellowish-grey and brownish-black; 
 lower parts pale reddish-brown ; tail darker, barred 
 with black. Adult male with the bill at the base 
 yellowish-brown, towards the end black; head and 
 neck greyish-brown, tinged with pale reddish, streak- 
 ed with dusky darker on the upper part of the 
 head and hind neck ; throat whitish, lower parts 
 pale reddish-brown ; under tail-coverts barred with 
 brown ; tail reddish-brown, barred with dusky ; up- 
 per tail-coverts the same ; upper parts barred with 
 brownish-black and pale reddish-brown, spotted with 
 dusky ; inner primaries tipped with yellowish-white ; 
 scapulars and wing-coverts barred with pale reddish- 
 brown and greyish-white ; shaft of the first primary 
 white, dusky at the tip; inner shafts at the base 
 white, rest part light brown, excepting the tips, 
 which are dusky. Length, sixteen inches; wing,
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 293 
 
 nine and a half. Female larger, exceeding the male 
 from three to four inches." Giraud. 
 
 RING-TAILED MAKLIN. 
 
 Hudsonian Godwit. 
 Limosa Hudsonica, Lath. 
 
 " Specific Character. Bill blackish-brown, at base 
 of lower mandible yellow ; upper parts light brown, 
 marked with dull brown, and a few small white spots ; 
 neck all around brownish-grey ; lower parts white, 
 largely marked with ferruginous ; basal part of tail- 
 feathers and a band crossing the rump, white. Adnlt 
 with the bill slender, blackish towards the tip, lighter 
 at the base, particularly at the base of the lower 
 mandible ; a line of brownish-white from the bill to 
 the eye ; lower eyelid white ; throat white, spotted 
 with rust color ; head and neck brownish-grey ; 
 lower parts white, marked with large spots of ferru- 
 ginous ; under tail-coverts barred with brownish- 
 black, and ferruginous ; tail brownish-black, with a 
 white band at the base ; a band over the rump ; tips 
 of primary coverts nnd bases of quills white ; upper 
 tail-coverts brownish-black their base white; upper 
 parts greyish-brown, scapulars marked with darker; 
 feet bluish. Length, fifteen inches and a half; wing, 
 eight and a half. Young with the lower parts brown- 
 ish-grey, the ferruginous markings wanting." 
 Giraud. 
 
 SNIPE. 
 Genus Scolopax, Linn. 
 
 Generic Distinctions. Bill long, at least twice the
 
 294 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 length of the head; straight, tapsring, and flattened 
 towards the end ; eyes rather large, placed high in 
 the head, and far back from the bill ; neck of mode- 
 rate length, and rather thick; body full; wings 
 rather long and pointed ; tail moderate and rounded ; 
 legs moderate ; toes slender and rather long, except 
 the hind one ; middle toe longest, and connected at 
 the base with the inner by a slight web, the outer 
 one being free. 
 
 DOWITCHER. 
 
 Dowitch Brown Back Quail-Snipe Red-Breasted Snipe. 
 Scolopax Noveboracensis, Wils. 
 
 This is a beautiful, excellent, and plentiful bird ; it 
 abounds in the marshes during the entire summer, 
 congregates in vast flocks, and although uttering a 
 faint call itself, is attracted to the decoys by the cry 
 of the yellow-legs, or almost any sharp whistle. It is 
 remarkably gentle, individuals often alighting when 
 their associates are slain, in spite of the unusual 
 uproar ; and it can be more readily approached than 
 any of the bay-birds. Its flesh, moreover, is quite 
 delicate, and when fat somewhat similar to that of 
 the English snipe, which it greatly resembles in 
 appearance. In general color it is brownish, with a 
 light abdomen, but occasionally the breast is as red 
 as that of a robin in full plumage. Its flight is 
 steady, although when alarmed it " skivers," or darts 
 about rapidly, and as it flies in close ranks, it suffers 
 proportionally. Although it is rather looked down
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 295 
 
 upon by persons who wish to make a show of largo 
 birds, I am always entirely satisfied with a good bag 
 of well-conditioned dowitchers. 
 
 ''Specific Character. Spring plumage, upper 
 parts brownish-black, variegated with light brown- 
 ish-red ; lower parts dull orange-red, abdomen paler, 
 spotted and barred with black ; rump white ; the 
 tail feathers and the upper and lower tail-coverts, 
 alternately barred with white and black. In autumn 
 the upper parts are brownish-grey ; the lower parts 
 greyish-white ; the tail feathers and the upper 
 and lower tail-coverts the same as in spring. 
 Adult with the bill towards the end black, lighter 
 at the base ; top of the head, back of the neck, 
 scapulars, tertials, and fore part of the back, 
 blackish-brown, variegated with ferruginous ; second- 
 aries and wing-coverts clove brown, the latter edged 
 with white, the former tipped with the same; 
 hind part of back white ; the rump marked with 
 roundish spots of blackish-brown ; upper tail-coverts 
 dull white, barred with black ; tail feathers crossed 
 with numerous black bands, their tips white ; loral 
 band dusky, the jspace between which and the medial 
 band on the fore part of the head, greyish-white, 
 tinged with ferruginous, and slightly touched with 
 dusky; sides of the head spotted with dark-brown ; 
 lower parts dull orange-red, the abdomen lighter ; 
 the neck and foro part of breast spotted with dusky; 
 the sides of the body with numerous bars of the 
 same color; legs and feet dull yellowish-green. 
 Young with the lower parts paler. Winter dress,
 
 296 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 the upper parts brownish-grey ; neck ash-grey, 
 streaked with dusky ; lower parts greyish-white, 
 with dusky bars on the sides of the body. Length, 
 ten inches and a half; wing, six." Giraucl. 
 
 CUKLEW. 
 
 Genus Numenius, Briss. 
 
 Generic Distinctions. Bill very long, slender, de- 
 curved or arched, with the upper mandible the 
 longer, and obtuse at the end; head rounded and 
 compressed above; neck long, body full, wings long, 
 feet rather long ; toes connected at the base ; tibid 
 bare a short space above the knee ; legs rather long ; 
 tail short and rounded. 
 
 JACK CURLEW. 
 
 Short-billed Curlew. Hudsonian Curlew. 
 Numenius Hudsonicus, Lath. 
 
 This is a graceful and elegant bird, but so shy 
 and so well able to carry off shot, that it is regarded 
 as the most difficult to kill of all the bay-birds. It 
 has a long, rolling cry, and although it approaches 
 the decoys, it rarely alights, or even pauses over 
 them ; but, detecting the deception, it turns off or 
 passes on in its course. For this reason, the fortu- 
 nate sportsman Avho kills a "Jack" is eminently 
 satisfied, although its ilesh is not remarkably fine. 
 
 " Specific Character. Length of bill, three inches 
 and three-quarters ; tarsi, two indies ; lower parts
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 297 
 
 white. Adult with the upper part of the head deep 
 brown, with a central and two lateral lines of 
 whitish ; a brown line from the bill to the eye, and 
 another behind the eye ; neck all round, pale yel- 
 lowish-grey, longitudinally streaked with brown, ex- 
 cepting the upper part of the throat, which is grey- 
 ish-white; upper parts in general blackish-brown, 
 marked with numerous spots of brownish-white, 
 there being several along the margins of each 
 feather ; wings and rump somewhat lighter ; upper 
 tail-coverts and tail barred with dark-brown and 
 olivaceous grey ; primaries and their coverts black- 
 ish-brown, all with transverse yellowish-grey mark- 
 ings on the inner web ; the shaft of the first quill, 
 white of the rest, brown ; breast and abdomen 
 greyish-white, the sides tinged with cream color, 
 and barred with greyish-brown ; bill rather more 
 than twice the length of the head, of a brownish- 
 black color at the base of the lower mandible, flesh 
 colored. Length, eighteen inches; wing, nine and 
 a half." Giraud. 
 
 SICKLE BILL CURLEW. 
 
 Long-billed Curlew. 
 Numenius Longirostris, Wils. 
 
 The finest, largest, most graceful, and elegant of 
 all the bay-birds is the magnificent sickle-bill ; asso- 
 ciating in large flecks, and with a spread of wings 
 of little less than three feet, when it approaches the 
 stand, the sportsman's heart palpitates with excite-
 
 298 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 raent, and the sky seems to have lost its natural 
 blue and become of a rich brown tint. As these 
 splendid birds, shrieking their hoarse call, set their 
 wings for the stool, and crossing one another in their 
 flight, pause in doubt ; or, after alighting individu- 
 ally, rise again, and hesitate whether to remain or 
 continue their course the sportsman, cowering in 
 his lair, and anxious to take advantage of this glori- 
 ous opportunity, becomes wildly eager with excite- 
 ment; and if, after having by a judicious selection 
 brought several to the ground, he recalls the de- 
 
 o o * 
 
 parting flock which again presents itself to his aim, 
 his rapture knows no bounds, and with his reloaded 
 breech-loader, he repeats, perhaps more than once, 
 the exhilarating performance. 
 
 This lordly bird, the largest of the bay-snipe, is 
 often extremely gentle, and may be lured by the 
 imitation of its cry at an immenss distance, and 
 brought back to the decoys several times, where one 
 or more of its companions may have fallen ; but at 
 other times it is wild and shy. Individuals differ 
 considerably in size, the largest I ever saw having a 
 bill eleven inches long, and some weighing nearly 
 double as much as others ; but all are of a beautiful 
 reddish-brown or burnt sienna tint, with a yellowish 
 shade on the abdomen. Their flight is steady, and 
 their flesh tough, dark, and oily. Their eye is ex- 
 tremely bright, and their shape graceful. 
 
 " Specific Character. Bill towards the end de- 
 curved; upper part of the throat, and a band from 
 the bill to the eye, light buff; general plumage,
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 299 
 
 pale reddish-brown ; head and neck streaked w itli 
 dusky ; upper parts marked with blackish-brown ; 
 tail barred with the same ; abdomen, plain reddish- 
 brown ; feet, bluish. Length, twenty-six inches; 
 wing, eleven. The bill of the specimen from which 
 this description is taken measures eight inches. 
 The bills of individuals of this species vary, but the 
 length is at all times sufficient to determine the 
 species." Giraud. 
 
 FUTE. 
 
 Doo-bird. Esquimaux Curlew. 
 Numenius Borealis, Lath. 
 
 This is an upland bird, quite rare, but large, and 
 rather delicate eating. 
 
 " Specific Character. Bill, along the gap, about 
 two inches and a quarter ; tarsi, one inch and five- 
 eighths; upper parts, dusky brown, with pale yel- 
 lowish-white, marked all over with pale reddish- 
 brown. Adult with a line of white from the bill to 
 the eye ; eyelids, white ; upper part of the head 
 dusky, spotted in front with greyish-white, a medial 
 band of the same color ; throat, white ; neck and 
 breast yellowish-grey, with longitudinal marks of 
 dusky on the former, pointed spots of the same color 
 on the latter ; abdomen, dull yellowish -white; flanks, 
 barred with brown ; lower tail coverts the same as 
 the abdomen ; tail and upper tail coverts barred 
 with pale reddish-brown and dusky, tipped with 
 yellowish-white ; upper parts brownish, the feathers
 
 300 
 
 BAY-BIRDS. 
 
 tipped with pale reddish-brown, the scapulars mar- 
 gined and tipped with lighter; primaries, dark- 
 brown, margined internally with lighter the first 
 shaft white, with the tip dusky the rest brown. 
 Length, fourteen inches and a half; wing, eight." 
 Giraud.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MOXTATTK POINT. 
 
 THE eastern end of Long Island, that extremity 
 which seems to stretch out like the hand of welcome 
 towards the nations of the old world, beckoning 
 their inhabitants to our hospitable shores, is divided 
 into two long points like the tines of a fork. The 
 upper point shuts in Long Island Sound, and protects 
 our inland commerce from the violence of the "Great 
 Deep;" while the lower prong, which is kissed on 
 the one side by the blue waters of the Peconic Bay, 
 and on the other is buffeted by the billows of the 
 great Atlantic, is known as Montauk Point. The 
 heaving ocean seems here to have solidified itself 
 into a sandy soil, which rises and swells and rolls, 
 much after ths manner of its mighty prototype, 
 except that a scanty garment of tawny grass clothes 
 the outlines of the billowy waste. " Cattle on a 
 thousand hills " here roam in a state of, at least, 
 semi-independence, which they occasionally assert 
 by charging upon the intruding sportsman in a 
 manner which may be intended as playful, but 
 which looks somewhat serious. For a dozen miles 
 or so only a few houses break the monotony of the 
 dreary expanse, and it is to one of these, distant
 
 302 MONTAUK POINT. 
 
 some nine miles from the extreme point, that I am 
 about to cany the reader, for here alone can plover- 
 shooting be enjoyed in its fullest perfection. 
 
 There are numerous kinds of plover that make 
 their migratory passages along our coasts ; but the 
 one to which I refer, while to the epicure it ranks 
 almost, if not absolutely, the first upon the list, and 
 affords, by the swiftness of its flight and the eccen- 
 tricity of its habits, a prize not unworthy of the 
 highest efforts of the sportsman, has been the victim 
 of many a misnomer, but is correctly known by the 
 appellation American Golden Plover, Charadrius 
 pluvialis (P.). The Plover-family is large and of high 
 respectability ; but, when " upon his native heath," 
 no one of its clans is entitled to wear a loftier crest 
 than that which we now have under discussion. 
 His near relative, the Bartramian Sandpiper or 
 Grey Plover, is perhaps more aristocratically delicate 
 in his figure, and is welcomed as heartily at the 
 table of the epicure. But he is less social in his 
 habits, and rarely affords any but single shots. He 
 docs not fraternize with wooden counterfeits, and 
 his mellow whistle, as he rises at an impracticable 
 distance, rarely responds to even the most seductive 
 efforts of his pursuer. But our Golden friend, 
 notwithstanding his auriferous title, his superior 
 beauty of plumage, his swiftness and strength, and 
 tho savory reputation which he enjoys among the 
 knowing-ones, is possessed of gregavious habits, of 
 a singularly frank and unsuspicious nature, and is 
 generally ready to stop and have a chat with any-
 
 MONTAUK POINT. 303 
 
 thing which bears the faintest resemblance to a bird 
 and a brother. It is well for his admirers that such 
 is his nature ; and although the wide appreciation 
 of his merits certainly causes great destruction among 
 his ranks, still the vast flocks which, sometimes for 
 days together, fly past, within sight of the stands, 
 unshot at, seem to warrant the hope that the hour 
 of the final extinction of his race is very far distant. 
 
 Taking the Long Island railroad to Greenport in 
 the early part of September, and having encountered 
 and overcome the ordinary delay and difficulty of 
 obtaining a sailboat to further prosecute our voyage, 
 we find ourselves at last gliding on the waves of the 
 beautiful bay, past Shelter and Gardiner's islands, 
 and approaching the long low line of the Nepeague 
 beach. With a favorable breeze we may expect to 
 be landed on the smooth sand in a little cove, about 
 one mile from our destination, in two hours from 
 our time of departure ; but if the wind is adverse 
 and the fates unpropitious,we may have to follow the 
 path from the shore in the dark, which will require 
 our best instincts, aided by the guidance of the dis- 
 tant booming of the surf, and the assistance of our 
 especial guardian angel. 
 
 Once there, however, and we will be repaid for 
 our sufferings; we may find a table covered with 
 " South-side " delicacies, and bearing in the centre 
 a huge dish of beautiful, odorous, melting plover, 
 cooked to a turn, and we will undoubtedly meet 
 kindred spirits and generous sportsmen who are on 
 the same errand as ourselves. As we dispose of the
 
 304 MONTAUK POINT. 
 
 former, the latter will pour into our sympathetic 
 ears wonderful accounts of their sport, and rival one 
 another in recounting the long shots and the good 
 shots they have made, the numbers of birds they 
 have killed, and the pounds of bass they have caught. 
 
 Under the influences of a delicious supper and 
 moderate " nightcap," we seek our couch with fond 
 visions of the great flocks, and hopeful dreams that 
 we will do as well on the morrow. At earliest dawn 
 we spring from our bed, and rushing to the primitive 
 little casement have only time to rejoice in the pro- 
 mise of a fine clay, ere we note the welcome cry of 
 our noble prey hurrying westward over the beach. 
 
 To don our shooting costume, to grasp our gun 
 and ammunition, to load ourselves with the basket 
 containing decoys and incidentals, and to emerge 
 into the cool air of the September morning, require 
 but a few minutes ; we hasten across the sandy hil- 
 locks to our appointed spot, marked by a hollow 
 scooped out for the concealment of former visitants, 
 and by the quantity of feathers and cigar-stumps 
 lying loosely around ; and with hands trembling 
 with impatience, we distribute Uie stools in what 
 seems to us to be the most artistic and seductive 
 manner, for the birds are now beginning to fly 
 just within a tantalizing yet impracticable range, and 
 we long for action. 
 
 How wild, how glorious is the hour and the scene I 
 The heavy boom of the ocean, which rolls almost at 
 our feet, is relieved by the soft, mellow notes of the 
 sea-birds which float through the air in varied yet
 
 MONTAUK POINT. 305 
 
 harmonious cadence, and by the low of distant cattle, 
 just shaking off their slothful dreams. Hardly have 
 we disposed our body to the requisite flatness, when 
 a chattering chorus of melody makes our heart leap 
 with eagerness, and our eyes strain with impatience 
 to discern its source. Aha, we have them now! 
 that small, erratic cloud to the eastward, bearing 
 directly before the wind towards our covert, sends 
 a thrill through our being, which the whole " spa- 
 cious firmament on high," even on the loveliest of 
 nights, has, we honestly confess it, never succeeded 
 in imparting. On they come, nearer, nearer, nearer. 
 We pucker up our lips to greet their approach, but 
 the saucy gale renders our rude efforts futile, and 
 we commit our trust to Providence and our painted 
 counterfeits. Now they are within easy range, but 
 somewhat scattered ; with a violent effort at self- 
 command, worthy of a higher cause, we remain mo- 
 tionless, for there are evident indications of a social 
 spirit in that joyous group. They pause, they 
 swerve, they wheel upon their tracks, and with 
 motionless wings and a sweet low-murmured greet- 
 ing, they approach the fatal stools. How rash the 
 confidence ! How foul the treachery ! But, we 
 must also confess, how intense the excitement, as 
 we pull the right trigger at the critical moment, and 
 then, as the deluded victims scatter wildly, with an 
 outburst of appeal against man's cruelty, give them 
 the left barrel, and add three more to the list of 
 feathered martyrs. With lightning speed, their 
 thinned ranks vanish beyond the neighboring sand-
 
 306 MONTAUK POINT. 
 
 hills, and reloading our gun, we hasten to gather up 
 the slain. 
 
 Six with the right and three with the left barrel, 
 are pretty well for a beginning ; but we had better 
 have remained at our post, for while we are chasing 
 up one of the wounded birds, two more flocks pass 
 within easy range of our hiding-place. Hurriedly 
 twisting the neck of the fugitive, we resume our 
 lonely watch, and before the breakfast-hour of eight, 
 which our unwontedly early exertions have made a 
 somewhat serious epoch, we have had two more 
 double shots, and increased our score to twenty-one. 
 Beautiful, " beautiful exceedingly" is the burden of 
 game which AVC proudly carry back to our inn, leav- 
 ing our stools as they stand. 
 
 A hearty breakfast makes us feel like a new man, 
 and, after a fair discussion of its merits, lighting our 
 pipe, we again wend our way to the scene of our 
 triumph. The cry is still they come ; flock after 
 flock presents its compliments, and leaves memen- 
 toes of its presence ; but towards noon the hot sun 
 disposes the birds to listless inactivity, the flight 
 diminishes, and finally stops. Returning to the house 
 with a bag larger by only three birds than that of 
 the morning, we kill the hours before dinner by a 
 few casts into the breakers, and Land a ten-pound 
 bass. 
 
 With sharpened appetite, we welcome the savory 
 dinner, and are quite contented to rest and let our 
 prey rest till five o'clock, when fifteen more birds 
 reward our post-prandial exertions, and make up a
 
 MONTAUK POINT. 307 
 
 total for the day of sixty plover and one bass. We 
 sink to sleep that night with the proud conscious- 
 ness that our first day's plover-shooting has been a 
 great success; our heart prays silently for a con- 
 tinuance of our good fortune, and we indulge in 
 sweet thoughts of home, and the pleasure our return 
 laden with spoils will cause, when our friends greet 
 us and them at the social board. 
 
 The next day is as delightful ; the sweet, thrilling 
 music again fills the air at short intervals ; again our 
 trusty breech-loader sends its charge into the thick- 
 est of the "brown," or cuts down the straggler look- 
 ing for " former companions all vanished and gone." 
 Again we call the swift-travelling flock from the 
 very zenith, or whistle our lips into a blister, endea- 
 voring to attract the wary knowing ones that pause 
 to look, only to flee the faster; and the night finds 
 us with a still larger bag, but without a bass. So 
 eager have we become, so fearful that we should lose 
 a shot, and judging by the accumulating clouds in 
 the east that on the morrow it may storm, that we 
 stay out all day, except the necessary moments for 
 our meals, and give no thought to the monsters of 
 the deep. 
 
 Nor were we mistaken ; the morrow comes, the 
 gathering storm has broken, and no creature of 
 mortal mould can face its fury at least no bird, 
 with any pretensions to common sense or respecta- 
 bility, Avould imperil his plumes by an unnecessary 
 exposure to such an ordeal. So with forced patience, 
 we get through the live-long day as best we can ;
 
 308 MONTAUK POINT. 
 
 and on the following day, hail a sky as cloudless as 
 the most ardent sportsman could desire. But alas! 
 the flight has gone by, scared away perhaps by the 
 storm, or retreating before the advancing full ; and 
 when we take our seat at the breakfast-table, we 
 are obliged to admit that only nine birds have fallen 
 to our gun. 
 
 But the irrepressible and inextinguishable host 
 rises triumphant in this emergency. He boldly sug- 
 gests that there must be some sluggards, who have 
 tarried, spell-bound by the attractions of such a ter- 
 restrial, or, rather ornithological, paradise ; and 
 accordingly, he hitches up a venerable specimen of 
 the genus " Equus" and we start for an excursion 
 " over the hills and far away." Before we have ad- 
 vanced a couple of miles we have bagged a half 
 dozen solitary specimens of Bartram's Sandpiper or 
 Grey Plover, so dear to the sportsman and the 
 gourmand, but have seen no trace of the object of 
 our pursuit. When, suddenly, as we surmount one 
 of the swelling eminences which are the prevailing 
 feature of this district of country, we come upon a 
 sight such as, perhaps, but few sportsmen have ever 
 beheld. A gentle hollow spreads before us, for 
 several acres, literally covered with the ranks of the 
 much-desired, the matchless Golden Plover. 
 
 As they stand in serried legions, the white mark 
 on their heads gives a strange chequered weirdness 
 to the phalanx: and we involuntarily pause, spell- 
 bound by the novelty of the spectacle. Our host 
 himself, though an old hand, owns that he has never
 
 MONTAUK POINT. 309 
 
 before gazed on such a sight. There they stand 
 with heads erect, and bodies motionless, just out of 
 gunshot. Their number is computed by our com- 
 panion to be not less than three thousand, closely 
 packed, and apparently awaiting our onset. What 
 is to be done ? Delay may be fatal, but precipi- 
 tancy Avould be equally so: and our pulses stop 
 beating under the stress of the emergency. Our 
 horse also stops, obedient to an involuntary pull of 
 the reins. We accept the omen, and cautiously de- 
 scend from our vehicle ; warily crawling to within 
 seventy yards, we halt as AVC see unmistakable evi- 
 dences of uneasiness and suspicion among the 
 crowded ranks. They stoop, they run, they rise 
 with " a sounding roar," to which the united report 
 of our four barrels savagely responds. Away, away 
 with headlong speed, scatters and dissolves that 
 multitudinous host, and we hasten to secure our 
 spoils. 
 
 But, seventy yards make a long range for plover- 
 shooting, and we are somewhat chagrined to find 
 that only six dead and seven wounded birds remain 
 as proofs of the accuracy of our aim, and the effi- 
 ciency of our weapons. Hurriedly we plant our 
 stools, hoping for the return of at least a consider- 
 able portion of the vanished forces ; but they have 
 apparently had enough of our society, and, after 
 two hours spent in ambush, with only an occasional 
 shot at single stragglers or small flocks, we wend 
 our way back to the house. 
 
 On the morrow we kill a dozen birds over the
 
 310 MONTAUK POINT. 
 
 stools, before breakfast, among which are two spe- 
 cimens of the beautiful Esquimaux Curlew or Fute, 
 as he is commonly called, and which seems to be on 
 terms of the closest intimacy with our Golden friend. 
 We find him to be a heavier bird, equally inclined 
 to obesity, and, as future experiments satisfy us, 
 nearly as perfect in delicate richness of flavor. 
 
 At nine o'clock Dobbin is again harnessed, and 
 we start for the scene of yesterday's exploit. But 
 the sighing wind now sweeps over only a deserted 
 moor, and we direct our course in a direction 
 to make an inspection of Great Pond. Here, by 
 good luck and management, we bag five teal and a 
 black duck, as well as three passing plover. A few 
 large flocks of the latter are seen, but they are wary 
 and unapproachable; and afier several fruitless ef- 
 forts, we abandon their pursuit and start for dinner. 
 
 Having rendered full justice to the merits of a 
 bountiful repast, which, if it is made prominent in 
 this account, was still more prominent in our hungry 
 thoughts, we stroll to the ocean-side and make a 
 dozen casts for bass, but our luck seems to be on the 
 turn and we decide to leave on the morrow for 
 Greenport. About an hour before sunset, a few 
 birds are on the wing, and we again seek the field 
 of our first success. Here we make our final effort, 
 and are re warded with five noble victims, killed singly 
 at long shots, and we restore our breech-loader to 
 its case. We have no reason to be dissatisfied with 
 our four-days' sport, and it is with a certain reluc- 
 tance, and a sincere resolve to renew our visit at an
 
 MONTAUK POINT. 311 
 
 early date, that we pack our valise in anticipation of 
 a start on the morrow. 
 
 Our team is at the door ; we bid adieu to some 
 ladies of the household (of whom while writing 
 these lines we have thought much, though we have, 
 until now, said nothing), and, mounting by our host's 
 side, we trot merrily over the hills, till we reach the 
 deep sandy desert of the NVpeague beach. "A 
 long pull, and a strong pull " for an hour, brings us 
 to "terra firma" again, and rattling through the 
 quaint old town of Easthampton, after a charming 
 drive, we reach Sag Harbor, where a most absurdly 
 diminutive steamer, of just seven-horse power, awaits 
 to convey us to Greenport. We part from our host 
 with sincere gratitude for the genial kindness which 
 he has shown to us during our visit, and step on the 
 narrow deck of the tiny craft. A voyage of thirteen 
 miles, made under a full head of steam in just two 
 hours and a quarter, brings us once more to the 
 beautiful village of Greenport, where the cars are 
 awaiting us. 
 
 We return with a bag full of game, and the follow- 
 ing general conclusions and precepts impressed upon 
 our mind : In plover shooting use No. 6 shot in the 
 left barrel, for the birds are of wonderful strength 
 and require to be hit hard, or they will fly an immense 
 distance even if " sick unto death," and if crippled, 
 will sneak, and hide, and run, and cause much loss 
 of time that is precious indeed. Do not, fire too 
 soon ; as the flock will generally " double " if allowed 
 sufficient time, and then is the chance to " rake 'em
 
 312 MONTAUK POINT. 
 
 down." Be patient, keep cool, aim ahead of the 
 birds, and keep wide awake. 
 
 On almost any day, from the 25th of August to 
 the 10th of September, there are sport and pleasure 
 , to be had among the wild sand-hills of Montauk ; 
 and if there has been a north-easterly storm, with 
 pitchforks full of rain and caps full of wind, there 
 Avill be such an abundance of birds as only experience 
 can conceive of or appreciate. That is an event 
 that most of us have yet to wait for. Reader, I 
 wish I were sufficiently unselfish to say honestly 
 may you enjoy it first. 
 
 Since I first went to Montauk, when large and jolly 
 parties of sportsmen congregated every fall at Les- 
 ter's and Stratton's, some changes have taken place. 
 The plover have diminished until the chance of 
 sport is uncertain, although occasional good days 
 are had; and there is a probability that the railroad 
 will intrude on its "everlasting hills," and that 
 fashionable watering places will replace the old-time 
 sporting hotels. Then bid farewell, a long fare- 
 well, to all the shooting.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 RAIL SHOOTING. 
 
 SUCCESS in this delightful sport depends as much 
 upon the proper accessories, together with experi- 
 ence in minor matters, as in the great art of pro- 
 perly handling the gun. The best shot, badly 
 equipped, will be surpassed by an inferior marks- 
 man accustomed to the business, and thoroughly 
 fitted out for it. The shooting is done among high 
 reeds, and from small, light, and unstable skiffs, 
 which are poled over muddy shallows with an un- 
 steady motion that puts an end to skill which is not 
 founded on long practice. The sport lasts only during 
 the few hours of high water, when the entire day's 
 bag must be made, and requires, after the bird has 
 been killed, a sharp eye to retrieve him amid the 
 weeds and floating grass. 
 
 The number bagged, however, is sometimes pro- 
 digious ; and although we rarely now hear of hun- 
 dreds killed " in a tide," as was formerly not unusual, 
 the shots are still frequently rapid, and the result 
 satisfactory. The bird rises heavily, its long legs 
 hanging down behind; flying slowly, it presents an 
 easy mark to any one upon terra firma, and if not shot 
 at, will alight after proceeding thirty or forty yards. 
 
 It comes on from the north during the early part
 
 314 RAIL-SHOOTING. 
 
 of September, and disappears so instantaneously 
 with the first heavy frost, that our superstitious 
 bay men imagine it retires into the mud. It can, 
 however, fly strongly, as I have occasionally had 
 unpleasant evidence under peculiar circumstances, 
 and in wild, windy weather. During low water, 
 when it can run upon the muddy bottom among the 
 thick stalks, which it does rapidly, it can hardly be 
 flushed by any but the strongest and toughest dog, 
 and is not frequently pursued ; although many per- 
 sons enjoy the hard walking and exposure of this 
 plan, preferring to tramp over the quaking surface 
 of our broad salt meadows, and flushing the rail 
 from amid some tuft of reeds, kill him with the aid 
 of their loved fellow-playmate, a high-strung setter 
 or untiring water spaniel. 
 
 As the tide rises, however, and covers the bottom 
 with a few inches of water, the rail, caught feeding 
 among its favorite wild oats, or on the grains of the 
 high reeds, and alarmed at the advancing boat, is 
 forced to take wing and present an easy mark to its 
 destroyer. But if missed, although marked down 
 to an inch, it rarely rises a second time, having pro- 
 bably escaped by swimming a thorough knowledge 
 of which is among its numerous accomplishments. 
 The rail has a long, thin, and soft body, which it 
 appears to have the faculty of compressing; as it can 
 glide amid the thick stems of reeds and grass with 
 wonderful rapidity ; and if wounded, it will dive 
 and swim under water, leaving its bill only project- 
 ing, so as to bid defiance to pursuit.
 
 RAIL-SHOOTING. 315 
 
 The first necessity of equipment for this sport, is 
 a breech-loading gun, which not only enables the 
 sportsman to kill double the number of birds, but 
 will occasionally give him the benefit, by a rapid 
 change in the charge, of a favorable presentation of 
 a chance flock of ducks. But as many persons, out 
 of a want of knowledge or of funds, still cling to 
 the old muzzle-loader, it may be well briefly to men- 
 tion the articles that tend to modify its inferiority. 
 
 Of course, as the shooting occupies but a few 
 hours, and in good days the birds are perpetually on 
 the wing, it is essential to load rapidly ; and to do 
 this the sportsman places on a thwart before him a 
 tin box divided into compartments for powder, shot, 
 caps, and wads, or, as I prefer, two boxes, one filled 
 with powder and the other with the other materials. 
 For many reasons there should be a lid over the 
 powder to prevent its being ignited by a chance 
 spark or blown away by a strong wind and the 
 ordinary flask is frequently used in spite of the con- 
 sequent delay. A double scoop, made of tin or 
 brass, and regulated to the precise load, is placed 
 among the powder and the shot, and a solid loading 
 stick lies near at hand. 
 
 By these means the rapidity of loading is more 
 than doubled; the powder is dropped into both bar 
 rels at once by means of the double scoop, wads are 
 driven home by a single blow of the rod, both bar- 
 rels are charged with shot at once in the same man- 
 ner, the caps are within easy reach, and the gun is 
 loaded in less than half the time consumed in the
 
 316 KAIL-SHOOTING. 
 
 ordinary process. The shot may be made into car- 
 tridges of paper with a wad at the upper end, and 
 thus a few additional of the precious seconds saved. 
 Both barrels are discharged before either is reloaded, 
 and the birds are retrieved immediately. 
 
 The sportsman stands erect, without any support 
 to modify the unsteadiness consequent upon the 
 irregular motion of the boat, and requires practice, 
 not merely to enable him to take aim, but even to 
 retain his footing. Where the water is low and the 
 reeds strong, this difficulty is augmented, as the boat 
 entirely loses its way after every push, and advances 
 by jerks that utterly confound a novice. Experi- 
 ence, however, being acquired in loading rapidly 
 and in retaining his balance, the sportsman's labors 
 are easy; but the punter requires many different 
 qualities, and upon his excellence mainly depends 
 the final result. 
 
 He must possess judgment to select the best 
 ground, strength to urge on the boat unflaggingly, 
 and an inordinate development of the bump of locality 
 to mark the dead birds. The bird once killed and 
 the sportsman part ended, then the punter displays 
 his ability ; and if thoroughly versed in his craft 
 will push the boat through tall reeds, and matted 
 weeds, and fallen oat-stalks, and drifted grass, with 
 wonderful accuracy to the very spot, and peering 
 down amid the roots, will distinguish the brown 
 feathers almost covered with water and hidden by 
 the vegetable growth. 
 
 In order to retrieve quickly, a wide-meshed scap-
 
 RAIL-SHOOTING. 317 
 
 net is a great convenience ; but to mark well, a man 
 must be endowed by nature with that peculiar gilt. 
 Amon<r the vast mass of undistin<ruishable marine 
 
 o c^ 
 
 plants that spring from the muddy bottom and rise a 
 few inches or many feet above the surface, it would 
 seem impossible to determine, within an approach to 
 accuracy, where some bird, visible only for a moment 
 nnd cut down when just topping the reeds, has 
 fallen ; and when another bird rises to meet the same 
 fate, and perhaps a dozen are down before the first 
 is retrieved, successful marking becomes a miracle. 
 With some punters on the Delaware, where their 
 names are famous, so wonderful is the precision that 
 every bird, if killed outright, will be recovered, and 
 even a poor marksman will make a respectable return; 
 but when the gentleman shoots badly and the man 
 marks worse, rail-shooting is unprofitable. 
 
 For this sport, thus followed, it will be seen that 
 a punter is indispensable, and it is made the business 
 of a large class of men along the salt marshes where 
 the rail most do congregate ; and wherever a punter 
 cannot be obtained, as in the wilder portions of our 
 country, rail-shooting cannot be had. 
 
 From the necessity for rapid filing, the immense 
 advantage of a breech-loader must be apparent ; the 
 tide rarely serves for over two or three hours, and 
 to kill more than a hundred birds in that time with 
 a muzzle-loader is a remarkable feat, as it requires 
 almost the entire time for the mere loading and firing 
 of the gun ; but the breech-loader may be charged 
 in an instant, and en:ibles the sportsman to improve
 
 318 BAIL-SHOOTING. 
 
 the lucky chance of coming upon a goodly collection 
 of birds, and make the most of the scanty time 
 permitted to him. 
 
 None of those vexatious mistakes that occasionally 
 happen to the best sportsmen can befall him ; the shot 
 cannot get into the wrong barrel, nor the cap be for- 
 gotten ; the powder is not exposed to ashes from a 
 careless man's cigar; and there being no hurry, there 
 is more probability of steady nerves and a true 
 aim. 
 
 The charge should be light three-quarters of an 
 ounce of shot and two drachms of powder being abun- 
 dant to kill the soft and gentle rail and pellets at 
 least as fine as No. 9 are preferable to coarser sizes. 
 Old cartridges, that have been split find mended by 
 gumming a piece of paper over the crack, may be 
 used in the breech-loader, provided the sportsman 
 desires to indulge in praiseworthy economy, or is 
 deficient in a supply. 
 
 The sport is extremely exciting : the boat is forced 
 along with considerable rustling and breaking of 
 stems and stalks ; the bright sun streams down 
 upon the yellow reeds and lights up the variegated 
 folinge of the distant shore ; the waves of the bay or 
 river, rising apparently to a level with the eye, 
 sparkle in the gentle breeze that bends the sedge 
 grass in successive waves ; neighboring boats come 
 and go, approach and recede ; the rapid reports are 
 heard in all directions, like fireworks on the Fourth 
 of July ; the sportsman stands erect, and eager with 
 tl'jlh-ious excitement, near the bow; the punter
 
 RAIL-SHOOTING. 319 
 
 balances himself, and wields his long pole dexter 
 ously on a small platform .it the stern. 
 
 Silently a bird, rising close to the boat, wings its 
 way, with pendent legs and feeble strokes, towards 
 some one of its numerous hiding-places; instantly 
 the punter plants his pole firmly in the bottom, hold- 
 ing the skiff stationary, the sportsman brings up his 
 piece, and, with deliberate aim, sends the charge 
 straight after the doomed rail, which pitches head- 
 long out of sight. The punter has marked him by 
 that single wild rice-stalk with the broken top, and 
 heads the boat at once towards the place ; but ere 
 he has advanced a dozen feet, another bird starts and 
 offers to the expectant sportsman, who has his gun 
 still " at a ready," another favorable chance, and, 
 meeting the same fate, falls into that low bunch of 
 matted wild oats. The breech-loader opens, the 
 charges are extracted and others inserted, just in 
 time to make sure of two rail that rise simul- 
 taneously, still ere the first has been reached, and 
 which are both tumbled over and marked down 
 one, however, wing-tipped, and never to be seen by 
 mortal eye again. 
 
 Thus have I experienced it on the Delaware, at 
 Hackensack, and, in former days, among the tribu- 
 taries of Jamaica Bay, and at many other places where 
 more or less success has attended me. Although 
 never having enjoyed great luck, never having 
 advanced beyond the first hundred, and claiming to 
 be no such marksman as several of my friends, I 
 have had wondrous sport. Of a good day, when the
 
 320 RAIL-SHOOTING. 
 
 tide is favorable and the game plenty,-the excitement 
 is continuous, and increased by a sense of compe- 
 tition. 
 
 Other sportsmen are on the same ground, stop- 
 ping probably at the same hotel and shooting in 
 close proximity occasionally too close, if they are 
 thoughtless or careless. Net only will a charge of 
 mustard seed sometimes rattle against the boat, but 
 is apt, now and then, to pierce the clothes and pene- 
 trate the skin, followed by an irritation of mind and 
 body ; but when the tide has fallen, and the sport is 
 over, a comparison of the bag made by each sports- 
 man is inevitable, and no general assertions of round 
 numbers will answer, but the birds must be pro- 
 duced. It is vain to claim what cannot be exhibited, 
 and more than useless to talk of the immense quan- 
 tities that were killed but not retrieved ; such ex- 
 cuses are answered by ridicule, and if the poor shot 
 would avoid being a butt, he must be modest and 
 submissive. 
 
 There is danger too, at times, although an upset 
 in the weeds can result in nothing worse than a wet- 
 ting of oneself and one's ammunition, and the ruin 
 of the day's enjoyment; but I was once on the Dela- 
 ware, opposite Chester, when a fierce north-wester 
 was blowing, which had driven much of the water out 
 of the bay and river. The tide, of course, was poor, 
 having difficulty to rise at all against the gale, which 
 kept on increasing every moment, and the birds 
 were scarce and difficult to flush. The work of 
 poling was laborious ; the boats stopped after every
 
 RAIL-SHOOTING. 321 
 
 push, and the heavy swell from the broad river, roll- 
 ing in a long distance among the reeds, added anew 
 motion to their natural unsteadiness. 
 
 Of course the sport was not encouraging, and the 
 accidents were numerous ; several sportsmen fell over- 
 board, one upset his boat, and my man came so near 
 it his pole slipping at the moment he was exerting 
 liis utmost strength upon it that his efibrts to re- 
 cover his balance reminded me of dancing the horn- 
 pipe in a state of frenzy. He kicked up more capers, 
 and indulged in more contortions on the little plat- 
 form, scarcely a foot square, which he occupied, than 
 I supposed possible without dislocation of a limb ; 
 but he managed, however, to regain his equilibrium, 
 and neither fell overboard nor upset the skiff. 
 
 These little incidents, and the shooting, such as it 
 was, kept the party, which was numerous, interested 
 until the time came for recrossing the river to our 
 hotel. There was no stopping-place on our present 
 side of the river, which presented one apparently 
 endless view of waving reeds ; and the alternative 
 was simply to cross the open river, or pass the night 
 in our boats. The swell had increased into high 
 waves capped with snowy foam, and threatened de- 
 struction to our low-sided, short, and narrow boats. 
 Many were the consultations between the various 
 punters, and grave were the doubts expressed of a 
 safe crossing; but as there was no help for it, the 
 trial had to be made. 
 
 Selections were chosen of favorable starting-points, 
 and most of the party put out at about the same
 
 322 RAIL-SHOOTING. 
 
 lime the sportsman lying on the bottom at full 
 length in the stern, and the oarsman timing his 
 strokes to the violence of the sea. The waves broke 
 over us continually ; it was necessary to bail every 
 few minutes, and several had to put back when they 
 met with some more than usually heavy wave, and 
 take a fresh start, after emptying the superfluous 
 water. Of course we were drenched to the skin, 
 but found a species of consolation in knowing that 
 no one had the advantage of another. Had any of 
 our boats upset, although we might have clung to 
 them and drifted back among the reeds, we could 
 have effected a landing nowhere, and would proba- 
 bly have terminated our career then and there; had 
 this happened to a certain little skiif that held two 
 men and very few rail, this account would probably 
 never have been written. However, fate ordained 
 otherwise, and we reached our destination in safety. 
 The best locality for rail-shooting is along the 
 marshy shores of the Delaware River, above and 
 below Philadelphia ; many birds are also killed on 
 the Hackensack and the Connecticut ; they are 
 abundant on the James River, and doubtless further 
 south, but are not shot there ; and they are found 
 scattered over the fresh as well as the salt marshes 
 throughout the entire country. I have killed them 
 in the corn-fields of Illinois while in pursuit of the 
 prairie chicken, and have bagged several and heard 
 many among the wild rice of the drowned shores of 
 Lake Erie. They are a migratory bird, and pass to 
 the southward in the early fall rather in advance of
 
 RAIL-SHOOTING. 323 
 
 the English snipe, and alight at any damp spots for 
 a temporary rest wherever the growth of plants 
 promises nutriment. 
 
 They are often flushed by the snipe-shooter, to- 
 gether with the larger fresh-water rail, rallus elegans, 
 and their curious cry resounds along the reedy 
 marshes where the wild-fowler pursues the early 
 ducks. Nevertheless, they are difficult to flush and 
 kill where there is no tide to drive them from their 
 muddy retreats, and where the ground is too heavy 
 for a dog; and, comparatively speaking, on fresh 
 water, unless the wind shall have caused a tempo- 
 rary rise, they are safe from injury. 
 
 Their voices reply with the guttural " krek-krek- 
 krek" to the noise of the boat, and tauntingly boast 
 of their abundance and their security. Moreover, in 
 a new country, where larger game is still plentiful, 
 the excellences of the tender but diminutive rail are 
 lost sight of by comparison with his more profitable 
 compeers ; and except along the Atlantic coast, he 
 is known as a game-bird neither to the sportsman 
 nor the cook. 
 
 From the fact that he is rarely seen in the spring, 
 and does not at that season give his enemies a chance 
 to prevent his reaching his nesting-places at the far 
 north but only visits us during a fe\v short weeks in 
 the fall, and then is not much exposed, except in cer- 
 tain localities his race Avill be preserved in undimi- 
 nished numbers for many generations ; the light skiifs 
 will carry the eager city sportsman along the shores 
 of the Delaware, the Hackensack, and the cove on
 
 324 KAIL-SHOOTING. 
 
 the Connecticut, and the rapid reports will continue 
 to reverberate over the reedy marshes. 
 
 There are two varieties, the short-billed or sora- 
 rail, rallus Carolinus / and the long-billed, or Vir- 
 ginia rail, rallus Viryinianus, which are easily dis- 
 tinguished by this peculiarity, and differ, also, 
 slightly in plumage. The sora-rail are by far the 
 most numerous, especially along the sea-coast, and 
 are usually referred to as " the rail," but both are 
 shot and eaten indiscriminately. Their habits, mode 
 of flight, and gastronomic qualities, appear to be 
 identical, but I think the Virginia rail are propor- 
 tionally more numerous at the West, having a 
 slight preference, perhaps, for the fresh water. 
 Their food must be, however, essentially different ; 
 for while the sora, on account of its short bill, must 
 be confined to the seeds of its favorite reed, zimosa, 
 or the grains of the wild oats, the Virginia rail, with 
 its longer bill, also draws much of its nourishment 
 from snails and aquatic insects, and is considered by 
 some less delicate in flavor than the former variety. 
 
 About the fifth of September, before the English 
 snipe are numerous, although their taunting "scaip" 
 may be occasionally heard on their broad, open 
 feeding-grounds ; ere the ducks have marshalled 
 their legions in retreat from, the chilly blasts of the 
 north, after the bay-birds, with the exception of the 
 " short-neck," shall have mainly passed to the south- 
 ward, and before the quail are large enough to kill 
 the sportsman arms himself with his breech-loader, 
 and driving to Hackcnsnck or taking steamboat from
 
 RAIL-SHOOTING. 325 
 
 Philadelphia, embarks in the slight skiff usually 
 called a " rail-boat," and practises his hand possi- 
 bly out of exercise since the woodcock days of early 
 July upon the tame and languid rail. 
 
 His cartridges are prepared for the occasion ; as 
 he does not intend to devote more than a day or 
 two to the amusement, he takes with him a light 
 suit, appropriate to the boat and the weather, gaiter 
 shoes, flannel pants and shirt, and his waterproof, to 
 meet a temporary shower, and he lays in sufficient 
 liquid for himself and his man, knowing that salt air 
 produces thirst, and country inns bad spirits. Thus 
 armed and equipped, if he is fortunate enough to 
 have high tides, he is almost sure to enjoy fine sport, 
 and bring home a bag of game that will furnish forth 
 his table right handsomely to a goodly company, or 
 go far and spread much satisfaction among his friends 
 who may be the fortunate recipients. The heats of 
 the summer solstice are over, the birds will keep 
 several days with care, and the sportsman has not to 
 dread either the burning sun of August or the freezing 
 blasts of winter. 
 
 Many double shots present themselves in rail- 
 shooting ; and upon the manner in which these are 
 turned to account, and the brilliancy with which a 
 bird that rises while the sportsman is in the act of 
 loading, is covered with the hastily charged barrel 
 and cut down, depends the superiority of one marks- 
 man over another. In the days of the muzzle-loader, 
 I have killed many a bird with one barrel while the 
 ramrod was still in the other, and have shot several
 
 326 RAIL-SHOOTING. 
 
 with the barrels resting on ray arm, when they had 
 slipped from my hand in bringing the gun up hur- 
 riedly to my shoulder. Every single rise should be 
 secured as matter-of-course, and most of the double 
 ones, care being taken in the latter to obey that 
 great rule, of always killing the more difficult shot 
 first; if you shoot right-handed, as the majority of 
 persons do, and one bird flies to the right and the 
 other to the left, shoot first at the former, and you 
 will have less difficulty in bringing back the gun 
 towards the latter 
 
 Never relax your vigilance, as the birds rise 
 silently, without the warning whistle of the wood- 
 cock or whirr of the quail, at the least expected 
 moment ; and if the punter attempts to direct your 
 attention, the chances are ten to one that you look 
 in the wrong quarter. 
 
 The rail, while being a pleasant bird to shoot, is 
 also a pleasant bird to eat. There is no variety of 
 our wild game, large or small, that is more delicious ; 
 its flavor is excellent, and its tenderness beyond com- 
 parison ; it may not have the rich full flavor of thnt 
 noblest of them all, the big-eyed woodcock, nor the 
 savory raciness of the full-breasted quail, nor the 
 strong game taste of the stylish ruffed grouse, nor 
 the unequalled richness of the kingly canvas-back 
 but in tender, melting delicacy it is hardly surpassed. 
 If cooked in perfection, it drops to pieces in the 
 mouth, leaving only a delightful residuum of enjoy- 
 ment. It should be floated in rosy wine, and wash- 
 ed clown with the ruby claret, and accompanied by
 
 BAIL-SHOOTING. 327 
 
 fried potatoes, thin and crisp as a new bank note. 
 It may be preceded by the piece de resistance, and 
 should be followed only by salad, which may in fact 
 be eaten with it, if dressed with sufficient purity. 
 
 Kill your rail handsomely in the field, missing not 
 more than one in twenty, present him properly and 
 with due appreciation on the table, and eat him with 
 the gratitude that he deserves. 
 
 It is only of late years that many rail were killed 
 at the South. The old-time battue of the negroes 
 at night-time, with paddles and torches, did not 
 amount to much, but now hundreds are killed- daily 
 through the season in the rivers below Washington, 
 although the weather is usually so hot that half of 
 them spoil. In those extensive marshes, two hun- 
 dred to a gun is a moderate day's bag. Still the 
 numbers of this excellent little bird have not sen- 
 sibly diminished, and good sport is had every year 
 on the Connecticut and the Delaware.
 
 CHAPTER Vin. 
 
 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 
 
 IT is not proposed to give any extended account 
 of wild-fowl shooting as practised on the waters of 
 Long Island, or in the neighborhood of the great 
 Northern cities ; the unsportsmanlike modes of 
 proceeding which, are there in vogue, and which, 
 while contravening all true ideas of sport, insult com- 
 mon sense by the ruthless injury they inflict, have 
 been fully set forth by other writers. 
 
 In stationing a battery that imitation coffin, 
 which should be a veritable one, if justice had its 
 way, to every man who enters it and in lying prone 
 in it through the cold days of winter, the market- 
 man may find his pecuniary profit, but the gentlemnn 
 can receive no pleasure ; while the permanent injury 
 inflicted by driving away the ducks from their feed- 
 ing-grounds, and making them timorous of stop- 
 ping at all in waters from any and all portions of 
 which unseen foes may arise, is ten times as great 
 as the temporary advantage gained ; and as for calling 
 that sport, which is merely the wearisome endur- 
 ance of cold and tedium to obtain game that might be 
 killed more handsomely, and in the long run more 
 abundantly, by other methods, is an entire misappli 
 cation of the word.
 
 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 329 
 
 So long as the shooter confines himself to points 
 of land or sedge, whether he uses decoys or awaits 
 the accidental passage of the birds, he not only per- 
 mits himself a change of position and sufficient motion 
 to keep his blood in circulation, bnt he allows the 
 frightened flocks that have already lost several of 
 their number in running the gauntlet, a secure 
 retreat in the open waters, and undisturbed rest at 
 meal time. And so long as this is granted them they 
 will tarry, and trust to their sharp eyes and quick 
 ears to save their lives ; but when they cannot feed 
 in peace, and when they can find no haven of safety 
 in the broad expanse of water, they will inevitably 
 continue their migration, and seek more hospitable 
 quarters. 
 
 Wild-fowl shooting, as pursued at the West, or 
 even at the South, is glorious and exhilarating ; 
 there the sportsman has exercise, or the assistance 
 of his faithful and Intelligent retriever, and is re- 
 quired to bring into play the higher powers of his 
 nature. He manages his own boat, or he stands 
 securely upon the firm ground, and if he has not a 
 canine companion, chases his crippled birds and re- 
 trieves the dead ones by his own unaided efforts. 
 
 At the West, although the vast numbers do not 
 collect that congregate in the Chesapeake Bay and 
 Cunituck Inlet, there is an independence in the 
 mode of pursuit that has a peculiar charm ; and from 
 the facilities afforded by the nature of the ground, 
 the excellent cover furnished by the high reeds, and 
 the immense number of single shots, the average. 1
 
 330 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 
 
 success is as great as iu the more open waters of the 
 Southern coast. 
 
 The employment of retrievers is not general in 
 our country, which is, by the character of its marshes 
 nnd growth of plants, better suited for the full dis- 
 play of their capacities than any other. There are 
 certain objections to the use of a dog in wild-fowl 
 shooting, which, although entirely overbalanced in 
 the writer's opinion by the corresponding advan- 
 tages, are unquestionably serious. The season for 
 duck-shooting is mainly late and cold, when it is 
 essential to the shooter's comfort that his boat 
 should be dry ; but the dog, with every retrieved 
 bird, comes back dripping with wet, and if he 
 does not let it drain into the bottom of the skiff, 
 where it "swashes" about over clothes and boots, 
 shakes himself in a way to deluge with a mimic 
 cataract every person and thing within yards of 
 him. 
 
 It is unreasonable to ask of the intelligent and 
 devoted but shivering creature, that he should re- 
 main standing in the freezing water or upon the 
 damp sedge ; and if the master is as little of a brute 
 as his companion, and has a spare coat, the dog will 
 have it for a bed, regardless of the consequences. 
 
 Nor is this the only difficulty ; for unless the 
 animal has instinctive judgment as well as careful 
 training, he may in open water upset the frail skiff, 
 by either jumping out of it, or clambering into it 
 injudiciously. A thoughtful creature maybe taught 
 to make his entry and exit over the stern, but un-
 
 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 331 
 
 fortunately, some of the most enthusiastic and ser 
 vioeable dogs have little discretion or forethought ; 
 and unless lie is trained to perfect quiet, and broken 
 to e itire immobility at the most exciting moments, 
 he in apt to interfere sadly with the sport. 
 
 In spite of these inconveniences, however, the loss 
 of many of his birds amounting, amid the dense 
 reeds of the western lakes, to nearly one-half of the 
 whole number will satisfy the sportsman that the 
 retriever, with his devoted and wonderful sagacity, 
 to say nothing of his delightful companionship, is a 
 most desirable acquisition. Where the sportsman 
 is forced to pursue his calling solitary and alone, so 
 far as human associates are concerned, he will find 
 the presence of his four-footed friend a great satis- 
 faction, and, amid the solitary and unemployed mid- 
 day hours, a pleasant resource. 
 
 The dog is the natural companion of the sports- 
 man the partaker of his pleasures, the coadjutor of 
 his triumphs ; and whenever his peculiar gifts can 
 be used to advantage, it is a gratification to both to 
 call upon him. The knowledge that he will acquire 
 MI time is truly marvellous. Not only does he pos- 
 sess the power of smell, but his eyesight and hear- 
 ing far surpass those of man ; he will often discern 
 a flock long before it is visible to human eyes, and 
 his motions will warn his master of its approach. 
 
 His training can be carried on beyond limit ; his 
 knowledge increases daily, and his devotion is un- 
 bounded. Of all the race, the retriever is probably 
 the most intelligent; as, in fact, intelligence is one
 
 332 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 
 
 of his necessary qualifications. For this work no 
 breed has the slightest value unless the individuals 
 possess rare sagacity and almost human judgment. 
 Some of the most valuable English dogs have been 
 from an accidental cross ; and a pure cur with a heavy 
 coat is often as good as any other. 
 
 There is in England a strain of dogs known as 
 retrievers ; they are mostly used in connexion with 
 upland shooting, as English pointers and setters are 
 not broken to fetch ; but the favorite animals for 
 wild fowl shooting, which have made their name 
 notorious in connexion with this specialty, have 
 generally come from parents neither of which pos- 
 sesses the true retriever blood. 
 
 In this country the best breed will have some of 
 the Newfoundland strain ; the animal must be 
 clothed with a dense coat of thick hair to endure 
 the severe exposure to which he is subjected, and 
 must be endowed with a natural aptitude and pas- 
 sion for swimming. The usual color is dark, which, 
 in the writer's judgment, is a great mistake ; and the 
 only really distinct breed of retrievers is known as 
 that of Baltimore. 
 
 In the Southern States the dog, as an assistant in 
 wild-fowl shooting, has always been in far greater 
 repute than at the North ; although the inland lakes 
 of the latter, the extensive marshes closely grown 
 up with tall zimosas, matted wild oats, and thick 
 weeds, make his services far more desirable. At 
 the South alone has any intelligent attention been 
 given to raising a superior strain of retrievers ; and
 
 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 335 
 
 whether we seek an animal that by Ms curious 
 motions will toll ducks up to the stand, or by Ids 
 natural intelligence will aid the punt-shooter in 
 recovering his game, it is at the South alone that 
 we can find any admitted pedigree. 
 
 In the Northern States, however, the " native," 
 as he is called at the West probably from the fact 
 that he is invariably a foreigner selects any pro- 
 mising pup, and by means of much flogging and 
 steady work trains him to a faint knowledge of his 
 duties. A young dog loves to fetch, and will take 
 pleasure in chasing a ball thrown for him round the 
 room, and if he is a water-dog, naturally brings from 
 the water a stick cast into it, so that the routine part 
 is easily impressed upon him ; but an animal with 
 this proficiency alone is scarcely worth keeping. 
 
 A good dog must have intuitive quickness of 
 thought and judgment ; he must know enough to 
 lie perfectly motionless when a flock Ls approaching ; 
 he must understand how to retrieve his birds judi- 
 ciously, bringing the cripples first ; he must have 
 perseverance, endurance, and great personal vigor. 
 A duck is cunning, and to outwit its many artifices 
 and evasions the retriever must have greater shrewd- 
 ness ; it can skulk, and hide, and swim, and sneak, 
 and he must have the patience to follow it, and the 
 strength to capture it. Wonderful stories are told of 
 the many exhibitions of what seems much like human 
 reason, evinced by some of the celebrated retrievers. 
 
 But probably the rarest quality for a dog or man 
 to possess, and the most necessary to both, if they
 
 336 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 
 
 would excel in field sports, is the power of self-re- 
 straint. To ask an animal, trembling all over with 
 delirious excitement, to lie down and remain per- 
 fectly motionless during those most trying moments 
 when the ducks are approaching and being killed, 
 is to demand of him a self-control greater than 
 would be often found in his master. Yet upon this 
 quality in the dog depends the entire question of 
 his value or worthlessness ; if he makes the slightest 
 motion, the quick eyes of the birds are sure to dis- 
 cern it ; and if he bounces up at the first discharge, 
 he will certainly destroy his master's chance of 
 using his second barrel, and perhaps upset him over 
 the side of the boat. 
 
 It is to avoid the sharp eyes of the ducks that a 
 black color for the dog has been condemned. Amid 
 the yellow and brown reeds of the marshes, or upon 
 the reflective surface of the open water, black, from 
 its capacity for absorbing the rays of light, is visible 
 at an immense distance. Yellow, brown, or grey 
 are the best shades ; and any color is preferable to 
 black. Red is selected by the Southerners for their 
 tolling dogs, but this is with the purpose of making 
 them attractive. 
 
 Many persons conceive that a dark coat is warmer 
 for an animal than white, an idea that is carried into 
 practice in the ordinary winter dress of human be- 
 ings ; but it is refuted not only by the simplest prin- 
 ciples of science, but by the natural covering of the 
 animals that inhabit the cold climes of the north. The 
 polar bear is clothed in white, while the southern bear
 
 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 337 
 
 is of a deep black ; and many of the animals and some 
 birds that pass the winter in the arctic regions, change 
 their dress in winter from dark to grey or pure white. 
 
 Undoubtedly with a retriever the first point is to 
 consider his protection against cold ; plunging as he 
 does at short intervals into water at a low tempera- 
 ture, and exposed when emerging to the still colder 
 blasts of JEolus, he must be rendered comfortable 
 as far as possible at the sacrifice of every other con- 
 sideration. This is attained by the thickness more 
 than the color of his coat ; and the writer has al- 
 ways fancied, whether correctly or not, that curly 
 hair is warmer than straight hair. 
 
 The matted coat of the Newfoundland dogs the 
 smaller breed being preferable by reason of size is 
 extremely warm, and where its color is modified by 
 judicious crossing, is all that can be desired ; while 
 the instinctive intelligence, the devotion, faithful- 
 ness, docility, and interest in the sport, of these 
 admirable animals, fit them in an extraordinary 
 degree for wild-fowl shooting. Coming from the 
 north and accustomed to playing in the water, they 
 can, without danger, face the element in its coldest 
 state ; and whether it be to chase a stick thrown into 
 the waves by their youthful human playmates, or 
 to recover ducks shot by their sporting owner, they 
 take naturally to all aquatic amusements. 
 
 Nevertheless, as has been heretofore remarked, 
 although it is well to have a slight strain of the New- 
 foundland, no distinct breed is necessary to make a 
 good retriever. Our ordinary setters are sometimes
 
 338 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 
 
 unsurpassable for the purpose ; and any tractable 
 dog, if well trained, will answer in a measure. 
 
 How different it is to stand in the narrow skiff 
 among the tall reeds at early dawn, with the eager 
 and expectant, though humble, associate, crouched 
 in the bottom upon his especial mat, and there in 
 the increasing light that paints the east with many 
 changing hues, to single out the best chances from 
 the passing flocks, and have your skill doubly en- 
 hanced by the intelligent cooperation of your com- 
 panion ; than to lie, cramped, cold, and suffering, all 
 through the weary hours, stretched at full length 
 upon your back with eyes staring up to Heaven and 
 straining to catch a glimpse of the horizon over 
 your beard or forehead ; and occasionally to rise to 
 an equally constrained posture that is neither sitting 
 nor lying, and do your best to discharge your gun 
 with some judgment at a passing flock of fowl! 
 Who can hesitate in selecting the mode in which he 
 will pursue the sport of wild-fowl shooting? Most 
 of the favorite varieties of ducks, including many 
 that are known among ornithologists as sea-ducks, 
 fuligulce, are found in the many scattered ponds, 
 the shallow marshes, or the extensive inland seas 
 of the great west ; while the swans and geese are 
 shot, the former along the larger rivers and lakes, 
 and the latter in the corn-fields. It is true that the 
 enormous flocks that collect in the lagoons and bays 
 of the South are rarely seen; but the flight of small 
 bodies or single birds is more continuous, and pro 
 bably the total number even larger.
 
 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 339 
 
 It is impossible to particularize localities as pre- 
 eminent for this sport where so many are good ; 
 and the swamps, rivers, lakes, cultivated fields, and 
 even open prairies of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michi- 
 gan, Iowa, Nebraska, Dakota, Colorado, Minnesota, 
 and "Wyoming, and the Western country generally, 
 abound in their seasons with various descriptions 
 of wild-fowl. An English sportsman, who had 
 spent many years in the West, gave it as his opinion 
 that the best place for all varieties of sport in the 
 world was Southern Minnesota. 
 
 Although the use of a light skiff is always desirable 
 and adds enormously to the comfort of the shooter, 
 circumstances will often arise that will deprive him 
 of its use ; and in such case he has no better re- 
 source than to don his long wading boots, and tramp 
 through the shallow water until he conies to a favor- 
 able spot, perhaps the deserted house of a family 
 of beavers ; and there, perched upon its summit and 
 concealed by the surrounding reeds, to resign him- 
 self to the inevitable inconveniences of his position. 
 When his feet grow cold in spite of their india- 
 rubber casing, and his muscles weary for want of 
 rest, he will long for the dry skiff; and when he 
 comes to " bark " his load of game consisting, if 
 he is successful, of geese, canvas-backs, red-heads, 
 mallards, blue-bills, widgeons, and perhaps a swan 
 across the muddy flats a mile or two to dry land, he 
 will long lor it still more intensely. 
 
 For shooting ducks the best weather is dark, or 
 even rainy, as at such times the birds fly closer to
 
 340 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 
 
 the earth, being unahle to follow their course, and 
 do not perceive the sportsman so readily. But as a 
 natural consequence, the sportsman's ammunition 
 becomes damp and his clothes wet, while the old- 
 fogy owner of the muzzle-loader will unjustly anathe- 
 matize Eley's water-proof caps when his gun misses 
 fire, instead of blaming his own stupidity. The in- 
 sides of barrels will foul and the outsides rust ; the 
 loading-stick will become dirty and the sportsman's 
 hands and face grimy ; and then the happy possessor 
 of the breech-loader, when he handles his clean car- 
 tridges, although one occasionally may stick, will 
 thank his good fortune and bless Lefaucheaux. 
 
 A strong wind forces the birds out of their safe 
 course, up and down the open "leads," upon the 
 various points where the fowler, selecting the most 
 favorable by watching the flight, takes his stand; 
 and, when they are heading against it, reduces their 
 speed from the lightning rate of ninety miles an 
 hour to reasonable deliberation ; but when they are 
 travelling with it, renders the art of killing them 
 one of no easy acquisition. 
 
 In shooting wild-fowl, or in fact any rapid flying 
 birds, it is necessary to aim ahead of them not 
 that the gun is actually fired ahead of them, but to 
 allow for the time, hardly perceptible to man, but 
 noticeable in the changed position of the birds, ne- 
 cessary to discharge the piece; and the distance 
 allowed must depend not only on the rapidity of 
 their flight, but on the customary quickness of the 
 marksman. The great fault of sportsmen is, that
 
 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 341 
 
 they shoot below and behind their birds ; and this is 
 particularly apt to be the case where the game, as 
 with wild-fowl, appears to move more slowly than it 
 really does. 
 
 To the novice in this peculiar sport, the second 
 difficulty to overcome will be the inability to judge 
 distances. Not only do objects appear over the 
 water nearer than they really are, but there is no 
 neighboring object that will aid the judgment in 
 coming to a correct conclusion ; and by changes 
 in the weather birds in the air will seem to be 
 nearer or further off, and their plumage will be 
 more or less distinctly visible, according to circum- 
 stances. After several days' experience in dark, 
 cloudy weather, the greatest proficient will, on the 
 first ensuing day of bright sunshine, throw away 
 many useless shots at impracticable distances. 
 
 There is no criterion to determine the distance 
 of any bird high above the horizon, and any recom- 
 mendation to wait till the eyes can be seen the 
 book-maker's rule is worse than useless; it is a 
 matter of experience and judgment. 
 
 There is no better time to kill ducks than when 
 they are coming head on, the commonly promulgated 
 idea that their feathers will turn the heavy shot 
 being simply absurd ; and all the marksman has to 
 do is to cover his bird, pitch his gun a trifle up- 
 wards, and pull the trigger. 
 
 In the matter of ammunition, the high numbers 
 of shot and the light charges of powder of old 
 times have changed by general consent; and for
 
 342 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 
 
 ducks, one ounce and a quarter of No. 4 or 5, and 
 perhaps No. 3 late in the season, and of No. 1 or 2 
 for geese, driven out of the ordinary field-gun by 
 three and a half drachms of powder, will be found 
 preferable. I say a field-gun, because, although the 
 heavy duck-gun, with its enormous charge of six 
 drachms of powder and three ounces of shot, is 
 undoubtedly more killing when discharged into 
 large flocks, the waste of ammunition would be 
 immense were it used at the scattering flight of 
 the western country. 
 
 Many kinds of wild-fowl will, like bay-snipe, be 
 attracted by an imitation of their cry ; and, when 
 decoys are used, the mastery of these calls is neces- 
 sary to the proficiency of the bayman. But at the 
 West, where the use of decoys is not customary, 
 and where the nature of the ground prevents full 
 advantage being obtained from these devices, a 
 knowledge of the art is not so necessary. Never- 
 theless, there is something thrilling in the " honk " 
 of the wild goose ; when it is heard, the sportsman 
 is earnest in his efforts to imitate it, and if suc- 
 cessful which he often is, for the bird responds 
 readily is not only proud of the result, but amply 
 rewarded for his skill. 
 
 In shooting from any species of cover, when ducks 
 are approaching, it is more important not to move 
 than to be well hid; the slightest motion startles 
 and alarms the birds, that would possibly have ap- 
 Droached the sportsman in full view if he had re- 
 mained motionless. If they are suddenly perceived
 
 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 343 
 
 near at hand while the sportsman is standing erect, 
 let him remain so without stirring a muscle, and not 
 attempt to dodge down into the blind. The ducks 
 may not notice him especially if his dress is of a 
 suitable color among the reeds, but will inevitably 
 catch sight of the least movement. 
 
 So much for general suggestions and advice, which 
 will be regarded or disregarded by the gentlemen 
 for whom this work is written, much according to 
 their previously conceived ideas ; and which may or 
 may not be correct according to the opportunities 
 of judging, and the skill of turning them to account, 
 of the writer; and now we will record a few per- 
 sonal experiences, in the hope, if not of further eluci- 
 dating and supporting the views herein expressed, 
 of furnishing the reader with more interesting mat 
 ter.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING ON THE INLAND LAKES. 
 
 OUT West Vay otft West a very long distance 
 from our eastern cities in miles, but, thanks to steam 
 and iron, a very short one in hours, upon an island ly- 
 ing in a bay that debouches into one of the great chain 
 of lakes, is situated a large, neat, white-painted and 
 comfortable house, where a club of sportsmen meot 
 to celebrate the advent and presence of the wild 
 ducks. The mansion for it deserves that name 
 from its extent and many conveniences peeps out 
 from amid the elms and hickories that cover the 
 point upon which it stands, almost concealed in 
 summer by their foliage, but in winter protected, as 
 it were, by their bare, gaunt limbs. From the 
 piazza that extends along the front a plank pathway 
 leads to the wharf, which shelves into the water, 
 like the levees on the Mississippi, and down or up 
 which each sportsman can, unaided, run his light 
 boat at his own sweet will. Adjoining the wharf is 
 the out-house, where the boats are stored in tiers, 
 one above another, and are protected summer and 
 winter from the weather. Not far off stands that 
 most important building, a commodious ice-house, 
 suggestive of the luxuries and comforts that a better 
 acquaintance with the ways of the place will realize.
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 345 
 
 The island is not large, but wherever it is tillable, 
 a garden, orchard, and grapery have been planted, 
 and furnish the household with delicious fruit and 
 vegetables. Quail have been introduced, and, being 
 protected by the regulations of the establishment, 
 have increased and multiplied ; and wild turkeys 
 occasionally commit upon the vines depredations 
 which are condignly punished. It is a lovely spot, 
 far from other habitations, and affords shelter during 
 the fall months to as pleasant a set of sportsmen as 
 can be found the world over. 
 
 The President, with his short figure and grey hair, 
 but sharp, clear eye, was selected for his superior 
 success as a marksman, and rarely returns from a 
 day's excursion without a boat-load of game. The 
 Vice-President and Secretary are the only other 
 officers, and upon their fiat it depends whether any 
 outsider shall trespass upon their inland Paradise. 
 Promiscuous invitations were once extended to the 
 brethren of the gun and rod, but so many spurious 
 counterfeits presented themselves, that a stringent 
 rule had to be adopted to exclude all but the genuine 
 article. 
 
 The shooting lasts from the 1st of September till 
 the chill breath of winter closes the bay and drives 
 the birds to more hospitable localities. It is pursued 
 in a small, light, flat-bottomed boat, similar, on a 
 larger pattern, to the rail -boats used on the Dela- 
 ware. Each boat is provided with a pair of oars 
 working on pins that fit into outriggers ; and also 
 with a long setting-pole, which has a bent wire, like
 
 }4G DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 a tiny two-pronged pitchfork, on the end, to catch 
 against the reeds in poling. A place is made to rest 
 the gun on upon one of the thwarts; an ammunition- 
 box, containing separate compartments for shot of 
 several sizes, wads, and caps, is stowed away in the 
 bottom, and a heavy loading-stick, in addition to 
 the ramrod, is carried. Two guns are an absolute 
 necessity, unless the sportsman has a breech-loader ; 
 for many birds are crippled and require a second 
 shot before they escape into the thick weeds, where 
 they are hopelessly lost ; and when the flight is 
 rapid, he requires, at least, four barrels, and would 
 be thankful if he could manage more. 
 
 The bay, which stretches in vast extent, is filled 
 with high reeds and wild rice, and rarely exceeds 
 a few feet in depth except where open passages 
 mark the deeper channels. It is a matter of no lit- 
 tle intricacy for a stranger to find his way, and 
 after nightfall the oldest habitu'e will often become 
 bewildered, as the various bunches of weeds, 
 tufts of rice, or stretches of pond lilies look alike, 
 and when a southerly wind is blowing the water 
 falls and leaves all but the deep channels nearly or 
 quite bare. If a man under such circumstances once 
 loses his course he may as well make up his mind to 
 pass the night in his boat ; though he work himself 
 almost to death trying to pole over bare spots, he 
 will but travel in a circle and grow momentarily 
 more bewildered. 
 
 I landed at the wharf in the middle of October, 
 of a year ever famous for the immense numbers of
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 34? 
 
 birds that were killed during it, and met with a 
 hearty greeting from a goodly company collected 
 round the groaning hoard of mine host of the white- 
 flowing locks. There was our worthy President, 
 and our Secretary and Treasurer gracefully combined 
 in one ; there our lucky man and the unlucky man, 
 and there a famous black-bass fisherman, and there 
 my special friend, and others of lesser note. 
 
 We sat down to tea with roasted canvas-backs at 
 one end of the table, broiled steaks at the other, 
 and beautiful potatoes flanking each that had been 
 raised on our own premises and were tumbling to 
 white particles, as though they were trying to be 
 flour ; jolly, round, baked apples sitting complacent- 
 ly in their own juice, vegetables of all sorts, grapes 
 from our grapery, and so many other inward com- 
 forts that one hardly knew where to begin and never 
 knew where to leave off. Our comely hostess, who 
 had prepared these good things, poured out the tea 
 for us, and put in sly remarks to her favorites ; and, 
 altogether, it was truly pleasant. 
 
 After tea and adjournment to the sitting-room, 
 while enjoying the practical cigar or comfortable 
 pipe, we discussed the varied fortunes of the day 
 and the probabilities of the morrow; compared 
 views on the habits of fish, flesh, or fowl, and related 
 experiences of former expeditions. But eager for 
 the morning sun, we retired early and dreamed of 
 victory. 
 
 As soon as the lazy dawn streaked the east, dress- 
 ing being done by candle-light, we hastily disposed
 
 348 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 of our breakfast and prepared for the start. Hav- 
 ing selected our boats and arranged them on the 
 wharf, we stowed our guns, ammunition-boxes, over- 
 clothes, a few decoys, and such other articles as fancy 
 suggested ; and then taking two little tin pails, we 
 put a nice lunch of cold duck, steak, bread, pickles, 
 cake, and fruit in one, and into the other water with 
 a large lump of ice bobbing around in the centre ; 
 and thus equipped, each man slid his boat down the 
 inclined wharf, and shipping his oars, pulled for his 
 favorite location. 
 
 My friend and myself joined forces, and made our 
 first pause at a little bunch of wild rice not far from 
 the house, called Fort Ossawatomie. Decoys are 
 not generally used in this region, as they cannot be 
 seen from any considerable distance by the birds on 
 account of the reeds ; but my friend had left his at 
 this place over night, and -they were still "bobbing 
 around " pretending to swim and looking deceit- 
 fully innocent when we ensconced ourselves among 
 the reeds near by, crowding down into the bottom 
 of our boats well out of view. 
 
 Several flocks were seen hovering over the hori- 
 zon, or moving along in the distance, scarcely discer- 
 nible against the morning clouds ; and although occa- 
 sionally they bade fair to approach, our hopes were 
 destined to disappointment, till a single bird turned 
 and headed directly towards us. When a bird is 
 approaching head on, it is almost impossible to tell 
 whether he is not going directly from you ; and at 
 times, except for his growing plainer every moment,
 
 DUCK SHOOTING. 349 
 
 \ve should have doubted which way this bird was 
 flying. Once he turned, from a change of fancy or 
 fearing danger, but perceiving some other cause of 
 alarm he again straightened his course towards us. 
 
 We were bent down, peering eagerly through the 
 high reeds, as at last he came by, within a long gun- 
 shot, on the side of my companion. The latter, ris- 
 ing at the exact moment, wheeled round, brought 
 up his gun, and fired in an instant. It was just with- 
 in range, but the bird turned over, killed dead, and 
 fell with a great splash into the water, sending the 
 spray six feet into the air. Seizing the pole, I pushed 
 out to him, and found that he was a blue-bill, one 
 of the best birds of the Western waters, and at this 
 time in perfection. 
 
 We again concealed ourselves ; but noticing that 
 the birds shunned the spot, I determined to leave it, 
 and pushed out alone to one of the principal land- 
 marks, where the landscape presents so great a uni- 
 formity a large umbrella-like elm upon the distant 
 shore. I did not follow the regular channel ; and 
 at first the way was a difficult one, being directly 
 through a fringe of wild rice, where the water was 
 shallow and the stalks reached high above my head, 
 but beyond, an open patch of water-lilies stretched 
 for half a mile. 
 
 The broad, smooth leaves of this remarkable 
 plant, far larger than those of the pond-lilies of the 
 Eastern States, lay in numbers upon, or half buried 
 in, the water ; while standing up a few feet above 
 its surface with their straight stems, and gracefully
 
 350 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 waving in the wind, were the cup-like pods that 
 contain the seeds. 
 
 When the pods first form the seeds are entirely 
 hidden from view, but as they increase in size, holes 
 form in the covering, through which they peep as 
 through a window. The seeds and pod are originally 
 green, but darken and turn blue, and then brown, 
 as the season advances ; and the holes, which begin 
 by being small, become larger till they open suffi- 
 ciently for the seeds to fall out. The seeds or ber- 
 ries are elliptical in shape and of almost the size of 
 a chestnut; in the green state they are soft, and can 
 be readily cut with a knife ; but when ripe and black, 
 they are as hard as stone, and will turn the edge of 
 a knife like agate. 
 
 When about half ripe, or bluish in color, they are 
 good to eat, and after the removal of a little green 
 sprout hidden in the centre, are sweet, tasting much 
 the same as a chestnut. As they ripen and their 
 covering recedes, their steins hold them upright; 
 but the first heavy frost breaks down the stems, and 
 lets the seed fall out into the water, where they lie 
 till next year. 
 
 The working of nature is wonderful, as no one 
 observes more frequently than the sportsman; all 
 this care is taken to preserve the seeds for their ap- 
 pointed work. If they were permitted to fall out 
 when green or even half ripe, the action of the water 
 would soften and destroy them ; extreme hardness 
 is necessary to resist its action for so long a time ; 
 while, on the other hand, if they were retained
 
 bUCK-SHOOTING. 351 
 
 longer and exposed to excessive cold, their germi- 
 nating principle would be annihilated. 
 
 Wood-ducks are fond of them in their unripe 
 state, and frequent the marshes, especially in the 
 early fall, to procure a supply. With a view to 
 nuts and grapes for dessert, I paused to gather a 
 number of pods, and was carelessly pushing along, 
 when from out a bunch of weeds, with a great clat- 
 ter, sprang a couple of those birds. Dropping the 
 setting-pole, I threw myself forward to seize the 
 gun ; but for this shooting, infinite practice and 
 great aptitude are required ; and although well 
 accustomed to kill rail from the floating cockle- 
 shells on the Delaware river, and able to take one 
 end of a birch canoe with any man, I was bun- 
 glingly in my own way, and, when at last one 
 barrel was discharged, a shameful miss was the 
 only result. Anathematizing my awkwardness, I 
 was dropping the butt to reload, when, roused by 
 the report, another bird sprang not more than 
 twenty yards off. In an instant the gun was at 
 my shoulder, and, when the fire streamed forth, 
 the bird doubled up, riddled with shot, and pitched 
 forward into the weeds. It was a drake, and, al- 
 though young, the plumage was resplendent with 
 the green, brown, and mottle of the most beau- 
 tiful denizen of our waters the elegant wood- 
 duck. 
 
 Several more rose, far out of range, before the 
 lilies were passed and my destination in the open 
 channel reached. Stopping on the brink of the lat-
 
 352 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 ter, to watch the flight of the birds, I noticed that 
 they frequently crossed a reedy island in the middle 
 of the channel, and consequently proceeded to con- 
 ceal myself in what among our association is called 
 the Little Bunker. It was an admirable location ; 
 the channel on each side did not exceed one hun- 
 dred yards in width, and the weather having be- 
 come thick, with an easterly wind blowing and a 
 slight rain driving, the promise of sport was ex- 
 cellent. 
 
 Once fairly hidden, and my work commenced ; 
 bird after bird and flock after flock approached, 
 and although the boat, even while pressed in 
 among and steadied by the stiff reeds, was far 
 from firm, a goodly number was soon collected. 
 How much more exhilarating is this noble sport as 
 it is pursued in the West than upon our Atlantic 
 coast, where, stretched upon his back in a coffin-like 
 battery, the sportsman has to lie for hours cooling 
 his heels and exhausting his patience ! There he is 
 not confined to one position; but, after shooting 
 down a bird, has the excitement of pushing after it, 
 and, if it is only wounded, of following it, perhaps 
 in a long chase before it is retrieved ; and then he 
 must make all haste to return to the hiding-place, 
 over which the birds are flying finely in his absence, 
 and thus he keeps up a glow and fire of activity 
 and exercise. 
 
 It is a glorious sight to see a noble flock of ducks 
 approach; to watch them with trembling alterna- 
 tions of fear and hope as they waver in their course,
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 353 
 
 as they crowd together or separate, as they swing 
 first one flank of their array forward, then the 
 other ; as they draw nearer and nearer, breathlessly 
 to wait the proper time, and, with quick eye and 
 sure aim, select a pair, or perhaps more, with each 
 barrel. It is still more glorious to see them fall 
 doubled up if killed dead, turning over and over 
 if shot in the head, and slanting down if only 
 wounded, driving up the spray in mimic fountains 
 as they strike ; and glorious, too, the chase after 
 the wounded with straining muscles to follow his 
 rapid wake, and, when he dives, catching the first 
 glimpse of his reappearance to plant the shot from 
 an extra gun in a vital snot. Glorious to survey 
 the prizes, glorious to think over and relate the suc- 
 cessful event, and glorious to listen to the tales of 
 others. 
 
 Sad, however, is it when the flock turns off and 
 pushes far out to the open water ; sadder still when 
 the aim is not true and the bird goes by uninjured ; 
 sad when the chase is unsuccessful and the weeds 
 hide the prey, or he dives to grasp a root and never 
 reappears ; and saddest of all to fall overboard out 
 of your frail bark a fate that sooner or later awaits 
 every one that shoots ducks from little boats. 
 
 I had had all these experiences except the last, 
 and almost that when pushing through the weeds, 
 my friend appeared, attracted by my rapid firing, 
 and after comparing our respective counts, ensconc- 
 ed himself in one of the points opposite me on the 
 channel. By this plan all birds that came between
 
 354 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 us gave one or the other a shot, and each could 
 mark birds approaching the other from behind. 
 
 The morning passed rapidly away amid splendid 
 shooting, and noon found us united in my hiding- 
 place to eat a sociable meal together. During the 
 middle of the day the birds repose, and the sportsman 
 employs the time in satisfying the cravings of hun- 
 ger or even in a nap, interrupted though he may be 
 in either by an occasional whirr of wings, that, when 
 it is too late, informs him of lost opportunities. 
 
 We talked over matters. As the day had cleared 
 off and become warm, the prospect of sport for 
 some hours at least was over, and my friend sug- 
 gested we should visit the snipe ground. To ap- 
 prove the suggestion, to push out and to ship our 
 oars, was the work of a moment, and we were 
 soon at Mud Creek bridge, a pull of about two miles 
 through an open k-ad, from which the ducks were 
 continuously springing on our approach. Having 
 anchored our boats a short distance from shore, to 
 prevent the wild hogs paying us a visit, we waded 
 to land, and substituting small shot for the heavy 
 charges in our guns, walked a few yards up the road 
 and crossed the fence. 
 
 I had brought my setter with me, and he had- 
 proved himself a model of quietness in the boat, 
 from the bottom of which he had raised his head 
 only once all day ; when my first duck dropped he 
 rose on his haunches, and watching where it fell, 
 sniffed at it as I pushed up, and then, satisfied lie 
 had no part in such sport, lay down to sleep.
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 355 
 
 The moment he touched land his vigor returned ; 
 at a motion, he darted out into the meadow of alter- 
 nating broad slanks and high field grass that lay be- 
 fore us, and ere he had traversed fifty yards, as he 
 approached an open spot, hesitated, drew cautiously, 
 and finally paused on a firm point. Stepping to him 
 as fast as the impressible nature of the ground per- 
 mitted, we flushed three birds, rising as they are apt 
 to do one after the other, and killed two. one spring- 
 ing wide and escaping unshot at. 
 
 While going to retrieve the dead birds we flush- 
 ed two more, both of which were bagged, one a 
 long shot, wing-tipped, and not recovered till some 
 time afterwards ; for, ere we reached him, we had 
 sprung a dozen, most of which were duly accounted 
 for. The missed birds, after circling round high in 
 the air, returned to the neighborhood of their origi- 
 nal locality, and pitching down head-foremost, con- 
 cealed themselves among the high grass near enough 
 to lure us to their pursuit. 
 
 The walking was terribly hard ; the clayey mud 
 uncommonly tenacious; the clay was already well 
 advanced, and splendid as was the sport, we resolv- 
 ed, after having pretty well exhausted ourselves and 
 bagged twenty-six birds, that we must hasten back 
 to the rice swamp, or we should lose the evening's 
 shooting. 
 
 We returned to our boats, and stowing the game, 
 pulled with the utmost vigor down the channel of 
 Mud Creek, and in a short time were again hidden 
 among the high reeds, awaiting the ducks. This
 
 356 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 time my friend selected a spot near a sort of semi- 
 island, that was submerged or not, according to the 
 state of the water, and near which was a favorite 
 roosting-place. 
 
 The sun was leisurely dropping down the west- 
 ern sky, throwing his slanting rays across the broad 
 bay, and lighting up the distant club-house as by a 
 fire. The fringe of land, trees, and bushes, that 
 shut out the horizon and rose but little above the 
 water level, was growing dim and hazy of outline. 
 The wind had died away; and stillness, but for the 
 quacking of the ducks; the splashing of the coots, or 
 so-called mud-hens, and the occasional report of a 
 gun, reigned supreme. A lethargy seemed to have 
 fallen upon the birds ; a distant flock alone would at 
 long intervals greet our eyes, and for some time our 
 evening's sport bade fair to prove a failure. 
 
 However, as the sun was about to sink, the birds 
 began to arrive, at first one or two at a time, then 
 more rapidly and in larger flocks, till at last it was 
 one steady stream and whirr of wings. Faster than 
 we could load, faster than we could shoot, or could 
 have shot had we had fifty guns, from all quarters 
 and of all kinds they streamed past ; now the sharp 
 whistle of the teal, then the rush of the mallard, 
 sometimes high over our heads, at others darting 
 close beside us ; by ones, by twos, by dozens, by 
 hundreds, crowded together in masses or stretched 
 in open lines, in all variety of ways, but in one un- 
 interrupted flight. 
 
 Such shooting rarely blesses the fortunate sports-
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 357 
 
 man ; we drove down our charges as best we could, 
 sometimes having one barrel loaded or half loaded, 
 sometimes the other, oftener neither, when we were 
 interrupted with such glorious chances; our nerves, 
 eyes, and muscles were on the strain, and to this day 
 we have only to regret that we did not then pos- 
 sess a breech-loader. 
 
 The air was alive with birds ; ,the rustle of their 
 wings made one continuous hum ; the heavy flocks 
 approached and passed us with a sound like the 
 gusty breeze of an autumn night rattling through 
 the dying'leaves. When the sun fled and darkness 
 seemed to spring up around us, they appeared in 
 the most unexpected and bewildering manner ; at 
 one time from out of the glorious brilliancy of the 
 western sky, then from the deep gloom of the op- 
 posite quarter, darting across us or plunging down 
 into the weeds near by. 
 
 Our birds lay where they fell, and when the ap- 
 proaching night bade us depart, we retrieved sixty- 
 seven the result of about one hour's shooting 
 doubtless losing numbers that were not noticed, or 
 which, being wounded, escaped. Had we not been 
 awkward from a year's idleness, or had we shot as 
 the professionals of Long Island and each used a 
 breech-loader, I could hardly say how many we 
 might not have killed. As it was, the sport was won- 
 derful, and the result sufficient to satisfy our am- 
 bition. 
 
 We lost no time in escaping from the weeds into 
 the channel-ways, whither the open-water ducks
 
 358 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 the red-heads and canvas-backs had preceded us, 
 and were still directing their flight; and then 
 started for the few dim trees that we knew sur- 
 rounded the club-house, rousing in our course im- 
 mense flocks of the worthless American coot, Fulica 
 Americana, the mud-hen of the natives. 
 
 The wharf reached, the boats landed, supper over, 
 the birds counted and registered, the social pipe il- 
 lumined, and we gathered in a circle round the fire 
 of our parlor for improving conversation. 
 
 " How many birds have we killed this year ?" in- 
 quired a member. 
 
 "The record shows a goodly total of 2,351," re- 
 plied the Secretary, turning to the register; "al- 
 most as many already as the entire return of last 
 season, during which we only killed 2,908." 
 
 "And the better varieties seem this year to be 
 more numerous." 
 
 " In that particular there is surprising uniformity 
 from year to year. Last season the return is made 
 up as follows: canvas-backs, 246; red-heads, 122; 
 blue-bills, 395; mallards, 540; dusky-ducks, 108; 
 wood-ducks, 601 ; blue-winged teal, 474 ; green- 
 winged teal, 39; widgeons, 204; pin-tails, 50; gad- 
 walls, 67 ; spoonbills, 11; ruddy-ducks, 2; butter- 
 balls, 7 ; geese, 2 ; quail, 14 ; cormorants, 2 ; 
 turkeys, 3 ; great hell-diver, 1 ; and this year the 
 average is about the same." 
 
 " But I think," said the President, " the canvas- 
 backs and red-heads are earlier and better than 
 usual."
 
 DUCK SHOOTING. 361 
 
 "They are rather earlier in making their ap- 
 pearance abundantly. The variation is never great, 
 however, and the birds appear in the following 
 order : the wood-ducks first, being plentiful early in 
 September; the blue-winged teal begin to surpass 
 them about the 20th of that month, and soon after- 
 ward the mallards arrive ; widgeons are abundant 
 by the middle of October, and canvas-backs and 
 red-heads are the latest." 
 
 " Ah," burst forth the unlucky man, enthusiasti- 
 cally, " the wood-duck shooting is my favorite ; 
 when they rise from the lilies they are easier to 
 kill than when flying past at full speed ; and you 
 have a punter to pole the boat and help mark the 
 wounded birds." 
 
 "October has my preference," responded the 
 President, with glowing eye; "the large ducks 
 the mallards, canvas-backs, and red-heads have 
 then arrived ; the blue-bills and teal arc numerous ; 
 and, when a single teal flies past, a man has to 
 know how to handle his gun to keel him over 
 handsomely." 
 
 " But mallards dodge, when you rise to shoot, at 
 the report of the first barrel; and red-heads and 
 canvas-backs, if not killed stone dead, dive and 
 swim off under water, or, catching the weeds in 
 their bills, hold on after death and never reappear. 
 Have you noticed the large teeth, or nicks, in the 
 bills, especially of red-heads ? " 
 
 "Yes. Those long, recurved teeth aid them in 
 tearing up the wild celery, on which they feed. I
 
 362 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 have had them serve me the trick you complain of 
 when they were at the last gasp so nearly dead, 
 that I have pushed out and been on the point of 
 picking them up. When not so Ibadly hurt, they 
 will swim off with their bill only projecting above 
 the surface, and if there is the least wind this is 
 entirely invisible. The trick is known to others of 
 the duck family; even the ingenuous wood-duck 
 will have recourse to the same mean subterfuge 
 occasionally, as one that was but slightly wounded 
 proved to me to-day." 
 
 "Is it true," inquired the fisherman, "that other 
 ducks steal from the canvas-backs the wild celery 
 that they have exhausted themselves in procur- 
 ing?" 
 
 " The widgeons have the credit of doing so ; but 
 I have never seen, and somewhat doubt it. The 
 canvas-back is too large and strong a duck to be 
 readily trifled with, and is by no means exhausted 
 by diving to the depth of a few feet after celery. 
 This celery, as we call it which has a long, deli- 
 cate leaf, resembling broad-grass, and bears the 
 name of Zostera valisneria among the botanists 
 grows in water about five feet deep, and its roots 
 furnish the favorite and most fattening food of the 
 canvas-backs, red-heads, and, strange to say, mud- 
 hens. The widgeon is not a large nor powerful 
 duck; can dive no further than to put its head 
 under water, while its tail stands perpendicularly' 
 above the surface ; and, although a terrible torment 
 to the weak and gentle mud-hen, would think twice
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 363 
 
 before incensing the fierce and powerful canvas-back. 
 Of a calm day it is amusing to watch the flocks 
 of noisy mud-hens, collected in front of the club- 
 house, diving for their food, and being robbed of 
 it by the widgeons. The latte** swims rapidly 
 among them, and no sooner does ht <jspy one com- 
 ing to the surface, with his bill full of celery, than 
 he pounces upon and carries it off. He is watchful 
 and voracious, and quickly devours the food ; while 
 the injured mud-hen, with a resigned look, takes a 
 long breath and dives for another morsel." 
 
 " Do they not combine to drive the robber away ?" 
 
 " Occasionally ; but he minds their blows as little 
 as their scoldings, and generally swims off with his 
 prize. The canvas-back, however, would soon teach 
 him better manners.'' 
 
 "Are the western canvas-backs as delicate and 
 high-flavored as those of the Chesapeake?" 
 
 "Fully so, as my friends in New York, who have 
 been fortunate enough to share my luck, have often 
 testified. Of course, when they first come they are 
 thin and poor, but having the same food as is found 
 in the Chesapeake, and being less disturbed, they 
 soon attain excellent condition, and arc entirely free 
 from the slightest sedgy flavor." 
 
 "That sedgy or fishy taste is confined mainly to 
 birds shot on the salt water, and is rarely found in 
 any birds killed upon the inland lakes, so that many 
 for instance the bay-snipe that are barely pass- 
 able when shot along the coast, are excellent in the 
 interior."
 
 364 DUCK SHOOTING. 
 
 "And yet the naturalists class the canvas-back 
 among fuligulce, or sea clucks." 
 
 " That arises from some scientific peculiarity, and 
 is not universal. He is certainly a fresh-water duck, 
 and thousands are shot here yearly." 
 
 "I lose a great many crippled birds," said the 
 unlucky man, meditatively ; " I wonder what be- 
 comes of them all ?" 
 
 "Many die, a few recover, some are frozen in 
 when the bay freezes over ; after the first hard frost 
 large numbers can be picked up, but they are so poor 
 as Only to be fit to send to the New York market. 
 Most sportsmen lose many ducks that they should 
 recover ; considerable practice is required to mark 
 well, but the search after a bird should be thorough, 
 and not lightly abandoned. The boat, when pushed 
 into the reeds, must be so placed that it can be easily 
 shoved off, and the pole kept ready for instant use. 
 If, however, a mallard is only wounded, and falls 
 into the weeds, it is useless to go after him. 
 
 " On the other hand, if a canvas-back, but slightly 
 touched, falls in open water, he will be rarely reco- 
 vered ; the one hides in the weeds, the other dives 
 and swims under water prodigiously. The mallard 
 and canvas-back are the types of two classes the 
 former is a marsh duck, the latter an open-water 
 duck. The mallard lives on the pond-lily seeds, and 
 afiects the shallow, muddy pond-holes ; the canvas- 
 back seeks the broad channels, and devours the 
 roots of plants ; the one dodges at the flash, of the 
 gun or sight of the sportsman, the other moves ma-
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 365 
 
 jestically onward, regardless of the havoc that the 
 heavy discharges make in his ranks. Of nearly the 
 same size, of unsurpassable delicacy on the table, of 
 equal vigor, they differ utterly in their habits." 
 
 " Speaking of types," said the unlucky man, re- 
 calling unpleasant reminiscences of numerous misses, 
 " you might call blue-bills types of the fast-flying 
 and dodging ducks. When they come down before 
 a stiff wind, and are making their best time, light- 
 ning is slow by comparison, and shot does not seem 
 to me to go quite fast enough." 
 
 " They are the scaup or broad-bill of the East, Fa- 
 ligula Marila, and are aptly termed the bullet-winged 
 duck. They are undoubtedly the most difficult duck 
 to kill that flies. I have known a thorough sports- 
 man and excellent shot on quail, shoot all day at 
 them without killing one. You must make great 
 allowance for their speed." 
 
 "And, moreover," added the President, " you must 
 load properly ; there must be powder enough behind 
 the shot to send it clear through the bird ; one pellet 
 driven in that way will kill a bird that would carry 
 off a dozen lodged beneath the skin or in the flesh." 
 
 " Perhaps so, but I doiibt its feasibility," was the 
 response ; " no small shot was ever, in my opinion, 
 driven through the body of a duck with any charge 
 of powder at over thirty yards. I use light powder 
 and plenty of shot." 
 
 This announcement was received with unanimous 
 dissent, and the President expressed the general 
 feeling when he continued
 
 366 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 "Heavy shot will make a gun recoil painfully; 
 but if the shot is light the charge of powder may 
 be large without producing unpleasant effects ; the 
 shot will be driven quick and strong, and the bird 
 deprived of life instantaneously. Perhaps the pellets 
 are not driven through the body, but the blow is 
 severer and the shock is more stunning. I use one 
 ounce of shot and three drachms of powder, and 
 would prefer to increase rather than diminish the 
 powder. It is a mistake to suppose powder does 
 not burn because black particles fall to the ground 
 if it is fired over snow or white paper ; these, I take 
 it, are flakes of charcoal and not powder, and some 
 will fall, no matter how light may be the load." 
 
 " For my part," persisted the unlucky man, " I 
 thiuk the crippling of birds arises from our inability 
 to judge distances, and from our firing at birds out 
 of reasonable range. The patent breech was meant 
 to remedy the necessity for such heavy charges of 
 powder as are used in the old-fashioned flint-locks. 
 Johnston, the author of an admirable treatise on 
 shooting, which is now out of print, is my authority, 
 and he says that an over-charge of powder makes a 
 gun scatter prodigiously without adding proportion- 
 ately to the force." 
 
 " That depends upon the character of the bore," 
 answered the Secretary ; "if it is relieved at the 
 breech, and after narrowing above, made a perfect 
 cylinder towards the muzzle, the more the powder 
 the better it will shoot." 
 
 Seeing that an interminable discussion was about
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 367 
 
 to open, branching off, in all likelihood, into the 
 comparative qualities of powder and manufactures 
 of guns, the President interposed. ' 
 
 I slipped off and went to bed. Being a compara- 
 tive stranger at the club house, for this was the first 
 year of my membership, I had made it a rule to fol- 
 low the advice and direction of the older habitues, 
 but I wanted to get a chance to try some experi- 
 ments of my own. This would require a little prep- 
 aration for which I needed the early hours before 
 the others should be up. 
 
 As I have said, the members were not at the time 
 of which I am writing in the habit of using de- 
 coys. There was a prejudice against them, their 
 weight in the boat was an admitted disadvantage, 
 which it was claimed was not compensated by any 
 corresponding benefit. My experience in a country 
 where birds were not so plenty, assured me that 
 this was a mistake, but having come to the club 
 house unexpectedly, I had not brought my decoys 
 with me, and had to rely upon such substitutes as 
 could be got up on the spur of the moment. It 
 was with the intention of preparing these that I 
 retired so early. 
 
 In those ancient days of Western civilization, it 
 was the habit not only to put several beds in one 
 room, but often to devote one bed to the accommo- 
 dation of two men, but by being content with a 
 very small apartment, I had succeeded in getting a 
 room all to myself. The bedstead was nothing 
 more than a cot, none too long and by no means
 
 368 DUCK-SHOOTLNTG. 
 
 too wide. There was a feather bed on it, a couch 
 we Eastern people do not always approve, but which 
 has its compensations of a cold night in a loosely 
 framed house. When I had once felt the insidious 
 wind creeping down my back where the clothes left 
 an open place for it, I learned the superiority of ex- 
 perience to theory. I slept, however, as only the 
 just and the sportsman sleep, my head dropping 
 into unconsciousness as it touched the pillow, and 
 never returning to it until the daylight penetrated 
 the open window with its welcome rays sleep 
 without a dream, such as youth and health and 
 tired nature only know. 
 
 Next morning I borrowed a saw and a hatchet, 
 all the tools that the place boasted, and fashioned as 
 best I could some floats. These I carefully conceal- 
 ed in my boat, and said nothing about them. After 
 breakfast, when we pushed off, I took my course 
 alone. I went pretty well up into the marsh, in fact 
 as far as in my ignorance of the intricacies of the 
 swamp I dared. I chose a point between two creeks, 
 and going carefully into my blind from behind, so 
 as not to break it down in front, a precaution which 
 I observed most of the sportsmen neglected, I con- 
 cealed myself, and waited the course of events. 
 Mere waiting never suited my views, but on this oc- 
 casion there was nothing else to do. It was some 
 time before I killed a duck, and I was wondering 
 whether I should have any opportunity to try my 
 floats, when a solitary mallard came within long 
 range, and I was so fortunate as to bag him.
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 369 
 
 It was a beginning, I set him on one of the blocks 
 of wood I had roughly trimmed into shape that 
 morning. I had noticed the day before that the 
 water was too deep to set up a dead duck in the or- 
 dinary way. Neither had I been able to find weights 
 of half bricks, which are the main reliance of the 
 Long Island gunner, or stones, which were an un- 
 known quantity in that muddy country. So the 
 best I could do, was, to thrust down a long reed with 
 a string tied to it at the proper distance from the 
 bottom. My decoy was not as natural as I could 
 have made it with better appliances, but it was the 
 best I could manufacture, and it did some service. 
 In less than five minutes it was joined by another 
 mallard, which first came to look, and was then per- 
 suaded to stay by the gentle influence of an ounce 
 and a half of shot. 
 
 In a short time all my floats were occupied, and 
 although they bothered me, and wasted my time by 
 breaking away in consequence of not being properly 
 arranged, they brought me, I do not doubt, twice as 
 many birds as I should have got without them. I 
 have much faith in being well hidden. For black 
 ducks, which are the most wary, it is absolutely 
 necessary not to disturb a leaf that their sharp eyes 
 will notice. If the reeds are thick enough of them- 
 selves to conceal the shooter, do not either add to 
 them or break them down. I have seen blinds 
 built up, till they looked like straw mattresses set 
 on end, of which the birds would be more shy than of 
 the man himself. I was killing shoal-water ducks,
 
 370 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 not of course getting canvas-backs, red-heads, or 
 broad-bills so far back in the marsh, and it was not 
 desirable to have many stools for the same reason 
 that it is not right to have too large a blind, they 
 are apt to awaken suspicion. 
 
 One great improvement noticeable afte'r the de- 
 coys were set out was, that the birds came in closer, 
 and gave me better shots. Without them there is 
 nothing to attract the ducks out of their line of 
 flight, they drive straight along, perhaps in a direc- 
 tion to bring them to the gunner, more likely 
 not, but if there are a few decoys, they will at least 
 make a dash toward the stand. Situated as I was, 
 surrounded almost entirely with marsh, only a little 
 open water on front and on either side of me, I felt 
 the want of a dog sadly. My setter, which I had 
 brought from the East solely for snipe shooting, had 
 shown himself on the day before so utterly worthless 
 as a retriever, that I had not taken him with me 
 again. Many of my ducks fell into the reeds, and 
 if they were killed dead, they were hard to find, and 
 if they had the least life in them, they would crawl 
 away, and sneak so effectually that if I got them at 
 all it would be after I had wasted much valuable 
 time. Had my retriever been with me, I am sure 
 that I should have doubled my bag. 
 
 Of all- the retrievers which have ever been used 
 in this country, none equal those which are called 
 the Chesapeake Bay dogs. Their hair is so thick 
 and matted that they can stand any amount of cold 
 without suffering, they are capital swimmers, and I
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 371 
 
 have seen them dive for a wounded duck, and they 
 seem to have an adaptation for this shooting, devel- 
 oped perhaps by generations of training, which no 
 other dogs possess. On. one occasion I remember 
 taking out a pup for the second time that he had 
 ever been shot over. He was so eager that I had to 
 tie him in the blind, and only let him loose after a 
 bird had been shot down. Yet on that day I saw 
 him recover a wounded duck after following him 
 half a mile, twice drop a dead one which he had in 
 his mouth, to bring a live one, and jump on another 
 and hold him with his paws till he could reach him 
 by putting his head entirely under water. The 
 wonderful instances of intelligence reported of this 
 breed would be incredible, if something only a little 
 less astonishing were not known to every man who 
 has owned one. 
 
 On this occasion I did not have my dog, and 
 much was the time and many the duck I lost in 
 consequence. It seemed as though most of those 
 which were killed dead, fell into the marsh where I 
 could not find the half of them, and that the 
 wounded fell into the open water, whence they made 
 their way to cover, before I could run the boat out 
 and pick them up. The sun was shining brightly 
 from a cloudless heaven, and although the air was 
 cold, I was so sheltered by the reeds that I was 
 as warm as I desired to be. That is one of the 
 points of superiority of inland over battery shoot- 
 ing ; had I been lying in the battery with the same 
 wind, no amount of sun would have kept me warm.
 
 372 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 I had to pick up early, as it would be no joke to 
 be lost in those monotonous marshes during the 
 night. To get out after dark would have been im- 
 possible, and almost equally impossible for any 
 assistance to reach me. 1 was fain to be satisfied 
 with a moderate bag, and lose the evening's flight 
 rather than lose myself. When I arrived at the 
 club house, I found that with the aid of my impro- 
 vised stools I had made the second-best bag of the 
 day. Comparative stranger as I was to the marshes, 
 this result was more than satisfactory. My supper 
 tasted all the better in consequence, but I did not 
 say anything about the means which I had taken to 
 bring about the result. 
 
 That evening, when we had collected around the 
 social fire and lighted our still more social pipes, 
 the president referred to the fact that the night 
 before, after I had gone to my welcome couch, the 
 rest of the members had been repeating stories and 
 called upon the unlucky man to fulfill a promise he 
 had made to give some personal experience of trout 
 fishing. 
 
 UNLUCKY MAN. "But my adventure occurred 
 on Long Island, whither I had gone to learn trout- 
 fishing. I had a new rod of Conroy's best and most 
 expensive pattern, a book full of flies, a basket, a 
 bait-box, a net, a gaff, and all tilings appurtenant, 
 and was especially proud of my fishing suit, which a 
 brother of the angle had kindly selected for me. My 
 boots came above my knees, and were of yellow Eus- 
 sian leather, with \vhich my brown pants matched ad-
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 373 
 
 mirably, while a blue vest, a white flannel coat, red 
 neck-tie and crimson cap, combined all the colors 
 that were least likely to alarm the fish. 
 
 " The other anglers collected at the hotel kindly 
 aided me with their advice, for which I was truly 
 grateful. They rigged out my leader with flies, 
 and convincingly proving that the more flies used 
 the more fish must be taken, fastened on thirteen. 
 Conroy had hardly served me fairly in selecting my 
 assortment, for they were pronounced by all not to 
 be half large or bright enough. It was clear that the 
 larger the fly the easier the fish could see it, and the 
 more surely it would catch ; so they loaned me a 
 number, principally yellow, green, and blue, which 
 was the more generous of them, as they had but few 
 of the same sort themselves. 
 
 " They impressed upon me to be up early, because 
 trout will not bite after sunrise besides, I knew 
 from the proverb that worms were more easily ob- 
 tained early; and it was still dark when, having 
 passed a restless few hours, I awoke and dressed. 
 The house was silent, not a person to interfere with 
 me, and having set up my rod the night before, I 
 crept cautiously down stairs. The tip would slash 
 about and knock at the dooi'S and on the walls as I 
 passed, and gave me great trouble in turning the 
 corners of the stairs, but I reached the hall door 
 safely and stepped out upon the piazza. 
 
 " I had hardly congratulated myself, when, hear- 
 ing a suspicious growl, and recollecting that the 
 tavern-keeper had a cress mastiff, I turned, and saw
 
 374 DUCK SHOOTING. 
 
 him in the dim light making straight for me. Run- 
 ning was never my forte, but, gentlemen, my speed 
 round that house with that mastiff after me has 
 rarely been equalled ; he kept it up well, however, 
 and if he could have turned a corner readily, would 
 have caught me. Recovering my presence of mind 
 in the third round, I darted through the hall door, 
 and slamming it to behind me, heard my enemy 
 bounce against it, and after a growl and a sniff or 
 two, turn away in disgust. 
 
 " Upon regaining my breath, I ascended to my 
 room, and loading the revolver which I always carry 
 on dangerous journeys, returned to the attack, de- 
 termined on revenge. Strange to say, however, the 
 cowardly beast, the moment the pistol was presented 
 at him, uttered a low whine and shrank away. Dis- 
 gusted with his cowardice, I seized up my rod, which 
 had been dropped in my first flight, and pursuing 
 him howling piteously three times round the house, 
 laid it on him soundly. 
 
 " It must have been poor stuff, for the tip broke. 
 Conroy meuded it afterwards, without charge, 
 when I told him the circumstances. But I put in 
 a spare one, and having dug my box full of worms, 
 went to the shed where my horse was left stand- 
 ing, ready harnessed, from the night before. There 
 is nothing like attention to these little matters in 
 time; % for, if the hostler had had to harness him, he 
 might have detained me many precious minutes. 
 
 "A half-hour's drive soon brought me to the 
 pond, and, after hitching the animal to the fence
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 375 
 
 for it was necessary to turn into the field from the 
 main road I walked down to the bank and jumped 
 into a boat. Unfortunately, it was chained to a 
 staple and padlocked ; the inn-keeper had forgotten 
 to give me the key. They were all the same but 
 one, lying on the shore and turned bottom up, that 
 did not seem to be sound. No time, however, was 
 to be lost ; the streaks in the east were beginning 
 to turn red an indication that the sun was rising 
 and the hour for fishing would soon be over. I 
 launched the boat, such as it was, and pushed off. 
 
 " Casting the fly is difficult, but casting thirteen 
 flies is almost impossible. The boat was leaky ; the 
 fish did not rise, and the water did. I bailed as 
 well as I coiild with one hand, and fished with the 
 other, till at last, almost exhausted, I saw the sun 
 rise. As a desperate resource, however, the bait- 
 box came into play. I removed the flies and substi- 
 tuted a hook and worm ; but while thus employed, 
 and unable to bail, the water gained on me rapidly. 
 Hardly had the bait touched the water before a fine 
 fish seized it. I tried my best to pull him out, but 
 he would not come the rod was such a miserable, 
 weak affair that it bent like a switch. The trout 
 swam about in every direction, and tried to get 
 under stumps and weeds and to break my line ; but 
 I held him fast and reeled in for rny friends had 
 explained to me what the reel was for and was 
 about to lay down rny rod and fish him out with 
 the landing-net, when the boat sank.'' 
 
 CHORUS " Could you swim ? ''
 
 376 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 " No ; but the water was only up to ray arm-pits, 
 and I was about to wade ashore, when a colored 
 gentleman, who had arrived and been sitting on the 
 bank for the last few minutes, shouted to me that it 
 was his boat and I must bring it with me. I an- 
 swered, savagely, that I would do nothing of the 
 sort, when he began to abuse me and call me thief, 
 and say I had stolen his boat, and he Avould have 
 me arrested. So I thought I had better comply, 
 and waded along, dragging it after me. The bot- 
 tom was muddy, and I slipped once or twice 
 and went all under. It was probably then that 
 the fish got oif ; but my colored friend took pity 
 on me, and pointed out to me the best places to 
 walk. 
 
 "I was nearly ashore, and had clambered upon a 
 bog, as the gentleman advised, and, by his direction, 
 I jumped to a piece of nice-looking green grass. I 
 have always thought he deceived me in this, for it 
 turned out to be a quagmire, and I sank at once 
 above my waist in solid, sticky mud. The matter 
 now became serious; my weight is no trifle, and 
 every motion sank me deeper and deeper. I im- 
 plored the colored man to help me out ; to wade in 
 to me, and let me climb on his back ; I offered him. 
 money profusely ; and would you believe it ? he 
 laughed, he roared, he shouted, he rolled over in an 
 agony of mirth. He asked me whether I was afraid 
 to die that only cowards were afraid to die. I 
 did not dare to say no, lest he should take me at 
 my word, and was ashamed to say yes ; but, as I
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 377 
 
 kept on sinking, I had to own up that I was afraid, 
 and then he only laughed louder than ever. 
 
 " My feelings were beyond description fury does 
 not adequately describe my rage ; but fear so tem- 
 pered it, that I seemed to change suddenly from 
 the extreme of heat to the extreme of cold. I 
 would begin by swearing at him, and end by im- 
 ploring ; I begged, cursed, prayed, and raved. 
 Overcome by his unrestrained delight, at last I 
 threatened pouring out upon him the vilest abuse, 
 and dire menaces of what I would do when I did 
 get out. The prospect of that, however, rapidly 
 diminished the nasty, slimy mud rose by percep- 
 tible degrees and then he made me take back all 
 my threats and apologize to him. In the agony of 
 my retaining terror, he actually made me beg his 
 pardon. 
 
 " When, however, hope was nearly over with me, 
 he slowly, with maddening deliberation, took a mil 
 from the nearest fence, and, interspersing the opera- 
 tion with much improving advice, began to pry me 
 out. As I rose towards the upper world my courage 
 returned, and my revenge was merely waiting till 
 my body touched terra finna to take ample amends. 
 Even that satisfaction was destined to disappoint- 
 ment ; for when I was so far out, that with the aid 
 of the rail I could help myself, he dropped it, and, 
 suspecting my intention, he scuttled off as fast as 
 his black legs would carry him. 
 
 " What an object I presented after effecting my 
 escape from head to foot one mass of mud; my
 
 378 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 handsome clothes, my hands and face, all blacker 
 than my ebony friend, and stiff and heavy with the 
 noisome conglomeration. After resting for a few 
 minutes, I gathered up my rod and started for the 
 wagon, when what should I see in the other end of 
 the lot but a bull. A single glance showed me 
 what I had to expect ; no bull could stand such an 
 object as I was. I ran and he ran. I made for the 
 wagon and he after me. Such a picture as I must 
 have presented, flying from an infuriate bull, may 
 seem funny to you, gentlemen, but was not to me. 
 We both reached the wagon and both went into it 
 together I into the seat, he into the body; the re- 
 sult being that I went flying out again, on the other 
 side, over the fence. The horse, which at that mo- 
 ment must have been dreaming, or sleeping the sleep 
 he did not have the night before, aroused by the crash, 
 cast one look behind and burst his bonds and fled. 
 
 "It was a long walk home ; people looked 
 strangely at me on the way, and some unfeeling 
 ones laughed. My wagon was broken, n^y horse 
 was ruined, my clothes were spoiled ; and the only 
 consolation I had, was that my brother anglers at 
 the hotel felt and expressed such intense sympathy 
 for my sufferings." 
 
 The resigned tones and manner of the speaker 
 were inimitable, and his story was received with 
 great satisfaction and closed the evening's amuse- 
 ments. All parties having resolved upon an early 
 start, retired early, and enjoyed a rest such as the 
 sportsman only knows.
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 379 
 
 One of the attaches of our club-house, without 
 whom it would be deprived of many pleasant fea- 
 tures, and who is a remarkable and eccentric 
 character, is called Henry a Canadian Frenchman. 
 He possesses the lightheartedness, the honesty 
 and trustworthiness of that peculiar class, with the 
 strongest prejudices against mean and underhanded 
 actions and those who are guilty of them ; he is, in 
 his own obstinate way, devoted to the service of 
 those who enjoy his esteem. Animated with strong 
 dislikes, he is barely polite to those who have ex- 
 cited his distrust, while he will do anything for his 
 favorites. He is a good shot, and thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with the marsh and the habits of the 
 birds, but on no terms will he make any sugges- 
 tions as to the most promising localities. To the 
 question, no matter how casually or confidingly 
 uttered : 
 
 "Well, Henry, where had I better go, to-day? " 
 He will respond, looking you calmly in the face, 
 and in a slightly admonitory tone : 
 
 "You know I never give advice, sir." 
 
 His greatest favorites can obtain no more satisfac- 
 tory answer, and in fact not much information of 
 any kind, from him in relation to the flight or 
 haunts of the birds. He appears to have dis- 
 covered that knowledge worth having is worth 
 working for, and is resolved that every man shall 
 be his own schoolmaster. He has quite an insight 
 into character, and appreciates the members of the 
 club and their peculiarities.
 
 380 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 One day a party, including a number who were 
 not members, had been snipe-shooting, and some 
 of the latter indulged the habit of pushing on be- 
 fore their neighbor to shoot any bird they may have 
 seen alight, or had reason to believe was upon his 
 bent. Afterwards Henry remarked, as a sort of so- 
 liloquy, " He was a poor man did not have much 
 education, and supposed he did not know ; but he 
 did not tlu'nk it right for one sportsman to run in 
 ahead of another in order to shoot a bird before 
 him. Probably he was wrong; but that was the 
 way he felt, and could not help it." 
 
 It was this curious individual who waked us the 
 next morning at an hour before daylight, and enjoyed 
 heartily the satisfaction of rousing us up at that un- 
 seemly time. We were no way loth, however, and 
 hastily swallowing our breakfasts and launching our 
 boats, pushed out under cover of the darkness for 
 our respective points. As yet the water and land 
 were scarcely distinguishable, and localities could 
 only be determined by intuition. Night was still 
 brooding with outstretched wings on the earth ; the 
 sky seemed to be close overhead, and the clouds 
 could not be distinguished from the open heavens. 
 Slowly, however, the outlines of the horizon be- 
 came apparent ; then the heavy masses of lowering 
 cloud that hung in the eastern sky, and left a nar- 
 row, transparent strip of light between themselves 
 and the horizon, came out in strong relief; the stars 
 faded and turned dim ; trees, bushes, and distant 
 elevations the minutiae of the landscape ap-
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 381 
 
 peared ; long lines of sedge-grass and reeds sprang 
 \ip from the water ; the eastern sky, and especially 
 the bright strip beneath the cloud, became lighter ; 
 a roseate tinge spread itself over the meadows, 
 deepening to intensity in the east, and at last the 
 sun peeped over the horizon. 
 
 Occasionally ducks will move at the first break 
 of dawn ; but frequently, as in the present instance, 
 they do not fly till about sunrise ; then the canvas- 
 backs commenced coming in from the open water ; 
 the red-heads accompanied them ; and the mallards, 
 aroused from safe beds among the reeds, flew with 
 loud quackings overhead. Later, the rapid blue- 
 bills and teal darted past, the pin-tails moved 
 majestically in stately lines, and the diminutive 
 butter-balls hurried by. The rising sun dissipated 
 the clouds, and the increasing wind announced a 
 glorious ducking-day. 
 
 To enjoy this sport thoroughly, or to make the 
 most of the chances offered, requires long practice 
 and peculiar skill ; but, when this skill has been ac- 
 quired, no specialty in sportmanship can be carried 
 to higher perfection, or confer more intense delight. 
 To observe quickly and note the direction of flight 
 of the distant flock ; to catch sight of the single 
 bird just topping the reeds; to hide well from the 
 sharp eyes of the approaching ducks; to keep a 
 steady footing, yielding to the treacherous motions 
 of the unsteady boat without losing self-command ; 
 to measure the distance accurately from birds pass- 
 ing high in air; to select the proper moment to
 
 382 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 fire, and to determine correctly the speed of the 
 moving object ; to do all these things at once, with- 
 out hesitation or failure in any particular, requires 
 in a man the highest qualities of a sportsman. The 
 wonder is that success is so often attained ; for there 
 are many men who will kill almost every bird that 
 comes fairly within range, and who will tell you before 
 they shoot whether they are sure of killing or not. 
 
 Unfortunately our party, although tolerably pro- 
 ficient, were far from perfect. Many were the fair 
 shots missed, or only half hit, and more still were 
 the impossible shots that were wasted. The wind 
 drove the birds upon the long neck of reeds called 
 Grassy Point, where several of us had located 
 ourselves, and the river-scows, or small boats, oc- 
 casionally passing kept them in motion. 
 
 During the morning several flocks of swans were 
 seen, looking, when they passed in front of a dark 
 cloud, like flying snow-flakes. Although somewhat 
 resembling the appearance of geese, at a distance, 
 the beat of their wings and their trumpet-voiced 
 cry are altogether different. They were very shy, 
 keeping far out of range ; but excited our nerves 
 at the mere thought of what glory would be con- 
 ferred if they should happen to come within the 
 proper distance. 
 
 One of our party, however, acquired but little 
 credit by a shot which he made at a flock of geese 
 that passed within twenty yards of him. He was 
 of Milesian descent, and explained the occurrence 
 afterwards as follows :
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 383 
 
 " You see, I was watching them come closer and 
 closer, and making my calculation to pick out two 
 fine ones. I knew the fellow at the head was an 
 old gander, and tough ; but right behind him came 
 two tender, juicy youngsters altogether the fattest 
 and best in the whole flock. Well, it took me some 
 time to make this selection, and, letting the old one 
 go by, I was just about preparing to knock over the 
 two others right and left and done it I should 
 have, because I intended to, you know. Well, I 
 put up my gun, and was about taking aim, and 
 was waiting for them to get just in the right po- 
 sition for I was as cool as I am this moment ; an 
 old hunter like me is not easily flurried. Well, they 
 were almost ready, and I was on the point of cut- 
 ting them down, when somebody else bad luck to 
 him about a hundred yards off, fired into the 
 flock. Of course they flirted in every direction, 
 and darted about so, that I lost sight of those I 
 selected ; and how could you expect me to kill any 
 others when I had made up my mind to have 
 those? You need not laugh because I missed 
 with both barrels; I wouldn't have missed if the 
 birds had been in their proper places, where I was 
 pointing my gun." 
 
 So it was that we obtained no geese. But the 
 canvas-backs and mallards, in the early morning, 
 made up for the deficiency ; and when, towards mid- 
 day, they ceased flying, some of our party resolved 
 to pole for wood-ducks. 
 
 To do this, as has been heretofore intimated, re-
 
 384 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 quires more practice than even shooting from 
 "points" exacting from the sportsman not merely 
 readiness in handling the gun, but activity of mo- 
 tion and accuracy of balance. The gun, at full 
 cock, is laid in its rack across the thwart ; or, as I 
 prefer, from one thwart to another, with the trig- 
 gers up ; the sportsman, standing erect on the stern, 
 wields his pole with care, avoiding noise, and never 
 by any chance touching the side of the beat with 
 it, for nothing alarms the birds so much as rapping 
 on the side of the boat, although it is not easy to 
 avoid doing so. He faces forward, raises the pole 
 carefully, and replacing it without a splash or a blow- 
 on the crackling stems or leaves of the lilies, uses 
 his body as a fulcrum as often as he wishes to alter 
 the direction of the boat. He works his way against 
 the wind as much as possible, and, casting his eyes 
 in every direction, is always on the alert. Suddenly, 
 with a roar like distant thunder, a wood-duck, gene- 
 rally the male, starts from the weeds, and with a 
 curious cry, like that of a wailing infant, makes the 
 best of his way from the approaching danger ; in- 
 stantly the sportsman drops the pole, Avherever it 
 may be in mid air or deep in the mud, just planted 
 or at its full reach and springing to his gun, raises 
 it Avith rapidity but deliberation, and, if the bird 
 has not already gained a safe distance, discharges 
 it with the best effect he is able to command. Fre- 
 quently, at the report, another bird will start, and 
 offer a fair and generally successful shot. 
 
 To one accustomed to kill quail, this shooting,
 
 DUCK- SHOOTING. 385 
 
 after the awkwardness arising from the motion of 
 the boat is overcome, is not difficult ; but the knack 
 of dropping the pole at once is almost unattainable. 
 Most persons, at first, frantically endeavor to de- 
 posit the pole in the boat, and cannot drop it 
 instantly; others give it an energetic push. The 
 former allow the birds time to escape, while the lat- 
 ter increase the unsteadiness of the boat. 
 
 The birds usually rise well, attaining the height 
 of twenty feet before they move directly away, and 
 hence present a good shot. If they are missed, 
 they may be marked down, pursued, and started 
 again; and as they are frequently very numerous, 
 and rise at unexpected moments, they keep the 
 sportsman excited, until, worn out with the exces- 
 sive and unaccustomed labor, he has to stop and 
 rest. If the water is low the poling is hard work, 
 and at the most favorable times will be found suf- 
 ficiently exhausting. The birds principally frequent 
 the lily beds, which stretch out in broad patches 
 where the water is moderately deep ; but they are 
 also found in open spots among the high reeds, and 
 occasionally among the deer tongue. 
 
 There are several kinds of weeds growing in the 
 shallows of the bay, and restricted in their extent 
 by its depth. The reeds, which in the fall resemble 
 a ripe field of grain, have crimson stems, and nar- 
 row yellow leaves, almost inclosing the stems at 
 their base and streaming gracefully in the wind at 
 the top ; they thrive in shallow water, and, attain- 
 ing a height of twelve feet, form the hiding-places
 
 386 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 of the sportsman. The wild rice has a greenish- 
 yellow stem, with longer joints and without leaves ; 
 it branches at the end into the seed-receptacles, and 
 is not found in such large patches. The deer- 
 tongue grows in deeper water, and retains its green 
 hue till the weather intimates that winter is present. 
 It has a leaf like a dull spear-head, that projects but 
 a few inches above the surface ; and its stout stems, 
 springing up close together, constitute a serious 
 obstacle to the advancing boat. There are also 
 scattered patches of weeds, usually called grass 
 because they are green, but with a round, hollow, 
 tapering stem, or leaf, that has no resemblance 
 whatever to grass. 
 
 Early in the season, when there are few birds fly- 
 ing over the points, and the young, tender, and gen- 
 tle wood-ducks crowd the marshes and will permit 
 an easy approach, it is customary to employ a pun- 
 ter, who poles the boat while the sportsman sits on 
 the forward thwart, gun in hand, ready in a moment 
 to cut down the feeble birds. But if any of the 
 shooting is to be done from the points, the punter 
 will be found in the way, increasing the unsteadi- 
 ness of the boat and augmenting the danger, already 
 sufficiently great. Although by no means proficient, 
 I always prefer poling myself, and will never permit 
 any guns in the boat but my own. 
 
 On the day more particularly referred to in this 
 chapter, we found the birds plentiful, although ra- 
 ther wild, and had grand sport, starting the crying 
 wood-ducks and the quacking mallards from their
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 387 
 
 hiding-places, and killing a goodly number in spite 
 of their sharp ears and strong wings. 
 
 Of the particular shots, the numerous misses, the 
 various mishaps, it were vain to tell. A baptism in 
 the shallow bay-water is regarded as a necessary 
 initiation, and not being dangerous, the ceremony is 
 frequently repeated. Good shots are rarer than bad 
 ones, even with the best marksmen, and perhaps the 
 author would have to vindicate truth by telling some 
 awkward blunders of his own, and thus forfeit the 
 reader's respect for ever. It is sufficient for the read- 
 er to recall the best day's sport at ducks he ever 
 had, to imagine his own shooting considerably im- 
 proved, his strength and activity augmented, and his 
 promptest deliberation surpassed ; and he will have 
 a faint idea of our performance. It is enough to 
 say the birds were there, and we were there. 
 
 Towards night we occupied a series of points 
 above the Gap, as it is called an opening between 
 the island where the house is situated and the land 
 beyond and waited for the evening flight. The 
 wind had died away, and as the sun was setting, the 
 mallards came in from the lake to pass the night. 
 Innumerable flocks, one after another, appeared from 
 behind the trees, and passing overhead, settled down 
 into the reeds. By twos, threes, or hundreds in a 
 flock, in straight, even lines of battle, or bent like 
 the two sides of a triangle, or in long single file, their 
 wings whistling in the still air, or producing reports 
 like pop-guns as they flirted or touched one another 
 immense numbers moved over us.
 
 388 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 Having ascertained by several ineffectual shots 
 that they were far out of range, we watched them 
 with delight and curiosity, wondering whence they 
 could all come, and whither they were going. There 
 was no abatement or pause till the increasing dark- 
 ness shut them out from our sight. Had we been 
 prepared with Ely's wire cartridge we could have 
 rained destruction among them, but as it was we 
 only killed a few chance birds ; and then reassem- 
 bling our party where the open lead joined the bay, 
 we returned to the club-house together. 
 
 The next day being clear and still, it was devoted 
 to fishing and exploring. A Kentuckian who was 
 among our numbers, having no fishing in his own 
 State, and knowing nothing of salmon or striped- 
 bass, and little of trout, was devoted to black-bass fish- 
 ing. Persuading the writer to go in the boat with 
 him, while two friends accompanied us in another, 
 we crossed the bay, and having fastened large Buel's 
 spoons to the end of stout hand-lines, proceeded to 
 troll in the most primitive manner. 
 
 The bass were plentiful, and rushing from their 
 lairs in the weeds close to the shore, darted out 
 after the boat had passed, and devoured our baits. 
 Although quite large, they gave feeble play, turning 
 over and over in the water, and rarely jumping with 
 the vigor of fish brought up in cooler latitudes ; in 
 fact, the liver and lake bass differ so greatly as to 
 seem almost to belong to different species. The river 
 fish, which lie in the discolored water where long 
 weeds grow from a bottom of deep mud, are yellow
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 389 
 
 in color, have a large head, and a yellow iris to the 
 eye. The lake fish, which prefer the clearer element 
 near rocky shoals, have a small head and red- 
 dish eye, are dark-sided and A'igorous, have a large 
 forked tail, and are infinitely preferable on the table. 
 One of our friends in the other boat was a practi- 
 cal joker, and of a lively turn of mind. He at first 
 amused himself by jerking the line of his companion 
 who sat nearer the bow, to induce him to think 
 it was a bite ; then he landed all the fish that were 
 taken on either hook ; and finally, having acciden- 
 tally caught his hook into his companion's and drawn 
 it in without the latter's knowledge, he hun it on 
 
 O ' O 
 
 the gunwale and had the fishing to himself. As the 
 portion of the line, or bight as sailors call it, which 
 still towed overboard kept up the ordinary strain, 
 his associate was in great wonderment at his bad 
 luck, and did not discover the reason till the fishing 
 was over. 
 
 Having absolutely filled our boats with bass thai 
 weighed from two to four pounds, and having or- 
 dered a good dinner at the club-house to entertain 
 some strangers, we returned, rather disgusted with 
 such tame sport. 
 
 We caught, besides the bass, a few pickerel and a 
 small pike-perch, lucioperca Americana ; and found 
 the most successful bait was a red and tin spoon, 
 with a white feather on the hook. The natives call 
 the pickerel a grass-pike, and the pike-perch a 
 pickerel. Those curious nondescripts half fish, 
 half reptile bill or gar-fish, lepidosteus, relics of an-
 
 390 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 tcdiluvian ages, were seen in the water, but are only 
 taken in the net. 
 
 The weather had been clear, mild, and still ; it 
 continued so for several days, and as storm and 
 wind are necessary to duck-shooting, our sport, al- 
 though pleasant, was greatly diminished. Conse- 
 quently we rose at reasonable hours, ate comforta- 
 ble breakfasts, and smoked our pipes before we left 
 the house. One morning, as I was about departing, 
 the Kentucky fisherman, who had found the weather 
 admirable for his sport, offered to bet ten of the 
 largest fish he would catch against the largest bird 
 I should shoot, that I would not kill a dozen ducks. 
 Of course I accepted the wager. 
 
 It was unpromising weather, still and warm, and 
 there was absolutely no flight either during the 
 morning or evening ; but by chance two cormo- 
 rants came close to my stand. Without waiting 
 to distinguish what they were I fired, killing one 
 dead, and dropping the other some distance off in 
 the open water. My disgust on picking up the one 
 nearest, and observing the thick legs, ugly shape, 
 and crooked yellow bill, was only diminished by the 
 recollection of my bet. I lost, failing in the end to 
 bring home the dozen birds although I shot more 
 than that number, but was unable to recover several 
 that fell in the weeds and on my return, using that 
 fact as an excuse, endeavored to beg off. The Ken- 
 tuckian was delighted ; imagining from my conversa- 
 tion that I had shot a canvas-back, and anticipating an 
 amusing triumph, he insisted upon the letter of the law.
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 391 
 
 Our discussion, as was intended on rny part, at- 
 tracted the attention and interest of all the mem- 
 bers, and my opponent waited with a victorious air 
 till I should bring him my largest bird. At last, 
 after much procrastination, it was produced amid 
 such shouts as rarely rang through the old club- 
 house. In vain did my Kentucky friend attempt to 
 disclaim his acquisition or propose to waive his 
 rights; "he would have the bird, and he must take 
 him ; it was a remarkably fine one of the kind, and 
 a good specimen." At last he burst forth : 
 
 " Oh, get out with your cormorant ; take him 
 away; do, and I'll never make another bet with 
 you as long as I live." 
 
 To this day, in that section of the "West, a man 
 who is too exacting occasionally wins a cormorant. 
 
 The time that circumstances permitted me to de- 
 vote to pleasure was drawing to a close, and the 
 last morning that was to be appropriated to the 
 ducks had arrived, when, as I was about loading 
 my boat, Henry stood before me, and with great 
 earnestness remarked : 
 
 " I am going to shoot with you to-day, sir." 
 
 If he had said, "I am going to shoot you," he 
 could not have spoken with more firmness and so- 
 lemnity ; or, if he had anticipated the most violent 
 contradiction, he could not have assumed a more 
 convincing manner. The proposal, as it suggested 
 an augmented bag for my last day, was, however, 
 cordially welcome ; and, as soon as he was ready, I 
 inquired in an unconcerned manner :
 
 392 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 " Well, which way shall we go ? " 
 
 The effrontery of the question fairly took him 
 aback, and, pausing in apparent irresolution as to 
 whether he was not in danger of being caught at 
 last, he seemed for a moment half inclined to run 
 for it. Incoherently he commenced his usual re- 
 sponse about not giving advice ; paused, and then, 
 in a sadly reproachful tone, remonstrated as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 " You know if I were to give advice to gentle- 
 men, and they were to have bad luck, they would 
 blame me ; and how can I know all the time where 
 the ducks are flying ? " 
 
 "But, Henry, as we are going together, I must 
 certainly be told where the place is to be." 
 
 This appeared to surprise him ; for, after a mo- 
 ment's deliberation, he jumped into his boat, and, 
 seizing his paddle, said, "I am going to Grassy 
 Point," and made off as fast as he couM. 
 
 " Well, Henry, I suppose I shall have to go with 
 you, instead of you with me ; but the difference is 
 not very great." 
 
 He seemed confused, and in doubt whether he 
 had not compromised himself, and paddled with 
 such speed that I could scarcely keep up with him. 
 Seated with his face towards the bow of the boat, 
 his guns lying ready for instant use in front of him, 
 he plied his double paddle that is to say, a long 
 paddle with a blade at both ends, which are dipped 
 alternately with a vigor that would have distanced, 
 for a short stretch, the most expert rower. Like
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 393 
 
 the other natives, he preferred the double paddle to 
 the oars. While using it he could make an accu- 
 rate course an important consideration in the 
 intricate channels; could watch for a chance shot 
 ahead of him, or chase a wounded duck advanta- 
 geously ; at a moderate speed, could travel a long 
 journey ; and, for a spurt, could surpass the same 
 boat propelled by oars ; and was not annoyed by 
 catching the blades in the innumerable weeds. So 
 great was the respect that I acquired for the double 
 paddle, from his manner of wielding it, that I there- 
 upon resolved to have one and learn to use it, even 
 if I did suffer somewhat in the attempt. 
 
 We proceeded in unbroken silence, and, reaching 
 the point, located ourselves well upon it, not far 
 apart, and awaited the ducks. Henry was an ex- 
 cellent shot, and set me an example that I did my 
 best to follow ; but as the birds did not fly well, we 
 left at the expiration of a couple of hours, and 
 crossed Mud Creek into the main swamp, called 
 Lattimer Marsh. On the way, happening to pass 
 an old muskrat house, my curiosity was excited, 
 and I inquired : 
 
 " Are there any animals in that house now ? '' 
 
 " I don't know whether there are any animals, 
 sir ; there might be some sort of animals, but there 
 are not any rats." 
 
 " Where are the rats, then ? " 
 
 " They all disappear in summer ; they leave their 
 houses, and in the fall build new ones. I can't tell 
 what becomes of them ; but they have queer ways.
 
 394 DUCK SHOOTING. 
 
 They build a big house a sort of family house, as 
 I call it where a number of them dwell ; and 
 around it, about fifty rods off, smaller ones, where 
 each rat appears to feed or go when he wants to be 
 alone. There are generally two entrances, one 
 above and the other under water, so that when the 
 bay is frozen over they can gpt in." 
 
 " How do you catch them ? " 
 
 " We set spring-traps of iron, but without teeth, 
 so as not to hurt the skin, near their houses, and 
 where we think they will be apt to step into them. 
 The time to catch them is from the 1st of March till 
 the 10th of April." 
 
 " Can anybody trap them ? " 
 
 "Oh no, sir; that wouldn't do at all; a person 
 has to own the land, or have the right to trap. The 
 land isn't worth much, though only about a dollar 
 an acre." 
 
 "The Indian name of muskrat is said to be 
 musksquash ? " 
 
 "I don't know how that is; but I have heard 
 people call them so. There are a good many in the 
 marsh, and we sometimes make three or four hun- 
 dred dollars a year from them." 
 
 " But, as the swamp fills up and the laud makes, 
 won't they disappear ? " 
 
 "No, sir; the swamp isn't filling up; but the 
 land is sinking, or the water rising either one or 
 the other ; for the swamp is growing larger. The 
 trees on the island are being killed by the water 
 some are dead already ; and every year more high
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 395 
 
 land becomes meadow, and the meadow turns into 
 swamp." 
 
 "I thought the Western lakes were growing 
 shallow, and receding yearly." 
 
 "Not here, sir. Why, that long spit of reeds 
 beyond Grassy Point was dry land once, so that 
 you could drive a team clear over to Squaw Island ; 
 there were large trees on it, but they are all dead, 
 and the channel between it and the island is six 
 feet deep." 
 
 " All the better for us sportsmen. Have you any 
 other valuable animals besides the rats?" 
 
 "A few otter; but not many. No, sir; the 
 ducks are the most valuable things we have." 
 
 "They will soon be killed off." 
 
 "No, sir; as there is no shooting allowed in the 
 spring they are becoming more plentiful. They are 
 tamer, too; and some stay here all summer and 
 breed. It was the spring shooting, when they were 
 poor and thin, that killed them off or drove them 
 away." 
 
 " How many birds can a good shot average daily 
 the season through ? " 
 
 " I think I can kill forty a day, but perhaps there 
 arc some men who can shoot better. But now, sir, 
 if you will choose your stand, I will go a little way 
 below." 
 
 I ensconced myself in a bunch of high weeds sur- 
 rounded by a pond of open water, and killed a few 
 mallards. The birds did not fly well, however, and 
 we moved from place to place in the hope of better
 
 396 DUCK-SHOOTING. 
 
 luck, and with a restlessness that showed increasing 
 dissatisfaction on the part of Henry; so that I was 
 not surprised when, early in the afternoon, he told 
 me that he must return to the club-house. I re- 
 mained for some hours where he left me ; but hear- 
 ing rapid shooting near the Gap, I poled my way 
 there through a broad field of lilies, known as the 
 Pond Lily Channel, and there, to my surprise, found 
 Henry. 
 
 Whether it was the desire to be alone, for his 
 peculiarity of preferring to shoot by himself has 
 been mentioned, or whether he was tempted by a 
 favorable flight of birds, I never knew ; when I ap- 
 peared, he paddled hastily away as though ashamed, 
 and made no answer to my inquiries as to what 
 detained him, or how they could manage without 
 him at the house. Unceremoniously occupying his 
 place, I completed the evening, and the allotted 
 hours of my stay, with some excellent shooting at 
 flocks of mallards/widgeons, and blue-bills, that pour- 
 ed through the Gap in endless flights, till after dark. 
 
 Then, for the last time, I rowed through the dark- 
 ness towards the well-known point; for the last time 
 sat down at the groaning board which our kind- 
 hearted landlady had furnished so liberally ; played 
 my last game with the euchre-loving son of Kentucky ; 
 smoked a farewell pipe of Killikinnick in the so- 
 ciable circle around the air-tight ; slept for the last 
 time in the comfortable bed under the hospitable 
 roof of the club-house ; and next morning, having 
 seen my associates depart, each in his little boat, and
 
 DUCK-SHOOTING. 397 
 
 bid them all farewell, I set out, with my birds pack- 
 cd in ice, for the City of New York. My friends 
 welcomed me and my birds gladly. Reader, had 
 you been my friend, you would also have welcomed 
 us both. 
 
 It is surprising how well the duck-shooting in the 
 confluents of the great lakes has held out in spite 
 of time and breech-loaders. Wild ducks, like tame 
 ones, lay fifteen to twenty eggs, not like the English 
 snipe, which rarely lays more than four. They go 
 to inaccessible places to breed, and are so tough, 
 strong, and active, that they can put their natural 
 enemies almost at defiance. Spring shooting has 
 been forbidden, and the result is that as many are 
 now killed every fall as were killed twenty years ago.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 
 
 THE word "sport" has been more abused, ill-treated, 
 and misapplied than any other in our language; of a 
 high, pure, and noble signification, it has been 
 debased to unworthy objects ; of a restricted and 
 refined significance, it has been extended to a mass 
 of improper matters ; from its natural elegant appro- 
 priateness, it has been degraded to vulgar and dis- 
 honest associations. 
 
 The miserable wretch who lives on the most con- 
 temptible passion in human nature, and with practised 
 skill cheats those who would cheat him winning by 
 the unfair rules of games, so-called, of chance or, with 
 less conscience, converting that chance into a certain- 
 ty, calls himself a sporting man. The individual who, 
 having trained a horse up to the finest condition of 
 activity and endurance, drives or rides him under 
 lash and spur round a course to win a sum of money, 
 although he may call himself a sportsman, is really 
 a business man. The daring backwoodsman of the 
 Far West, who follows the fleet elk or timid deer, aud 
 who attacks the formidable buffalo or grizzly bear, 
 is less a sportsman than a mighty hunter; the man 
 who shoots with a view of selling his game is a 
 market-gunner ; and he who kills that he may eat is 
 a pot-hunter.
 
 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 399 
 
 The sportsman pursues his game for pleasure ; he 
 does not aspire to follow the grander animals of the 
 chase, makes no profit of his success, giving to his 
 friends more than he retains, shoots invariably upon 
 the wing, and never takes a mean advantage of bird 
 or man. It is his pride to kill what he does kill 
 elegantly, scientifically, and mercifully. Quantity is 
 not his ambition ; he never slays more than he can 
 use ; he never inflicts an unnecessary pang or fires 
 an unfair shot. 
 
 The man who, happening to find birds plentiful 
 in warm weather, and, after murdering all that he can, 
 leaves them to spoil, is no more a sportsman than he 
 who fires into a huddled bevy of quail, or who con- 
 siders every bird as representing so much money 
 value, and to be converted into it as soon as possible. 
 
 The sportsman is generous to his associate, not 
 seeking to obtain the most shots, but giving away 
 the advantage in that particular, and recovering it 
 if possible by superiority of aim ; for although to be 
 a sportsman a person must naturally be an enthu- 
 siast, he should never forget what he owes to his 
 friend, and above all what he owes to himself. 
 
 Boys and Germans need not imagine that killing 
 robins or blackbirds on trees, no matter how nu- 
 merously, is sport. Robins and blackbirds, the 
 latter especially, if the old song is to be believed, 
 make dainty pies, but do not constitute an object of 
 pursuit to the sportsman. Diminutive birds shot 
 sitting arc as far beneath sport as gigantic wild 
 animals shot standing or running are above it. The
 
 400 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN 1 . 
 
 only objects of the sportsman's pursuit are the game 
 birds ; not in the confined sense used in old times by 
 the English, when the very princs of all the wood- 
 cock was excluded from the list, but embracing every 
 bird, fit for the table, that is habitually shot on the 
 wing. Many of these, perhaps the finest, gamest, 
 and bravest, are shot over dogs, where the wonderful 
 instinct of the animal aids the intelligence of the 
 human ; but whether followed by the faithful setter, 
 or lured to bobbing decoy ; killed from points where, 
 prone in the reeds, the eager sportsman, insensible to 
 cold or wet, at the grey of dawn or dusk of night, 
 awaits his prey ; or from the convenient blind which 
 the deluded birds approach without suspicion, or 
 pursued with horse and wagon on the open plain 
 these all are game birds, and he who follows them 
 legitimately is a sportsman. 
 
 Wild birds, like the tame ones, are given for man's 
 use, and the best use that can be made of them is the 
 one that will confer most health, nourishment, and 
 happiness on mankind. Fanatics imagine that 
 although birds may be killed, it must be clone only 
 to furnish food ; as if there was nothing beyond eat- 
 ing in this world, and as if contribution to health 
 were not as essential as supplies to the stomach. The 
 two may and should be combined ; a man who is 
 hungry may kill that he may be satisfied, the man 
 who is sickly may kill that he may recover neither 
 may kill in excess ; and a third may kill lest he 
 become sick, provided nothing is injured that is not 
 used.
 
 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN". 401 
 
 Death before the muzzle of a gun, in the hands of 
 an experienced marksman, when the body of the 
 charge striking the object terminates life instantly 
 and even when, in the hands of a bungler, the wounded 
 bird is not put out of his pain till he is retrieved is 
 far more merciful than after capture in a trap, accom- 
 panied with agonies of apprehension and perhaps 
 days of starvation, till the thoughtless boy shall 
 remember his snare and awkwardly end life. The 
 birds of the air and beasts of the field are given for 
 man's use and advantage, whether domesticatec , 
 or wild as they once all were ; and if they serve to 
 supply him with food or healthful exercise, and espe- 
 cially if they do both, they have answered their pm-- 
 pose. It is certainly no more brutalizing to shoot 
 them on the wing or in the open field, when they 
 have a reasonable chance to escape, than to wring 
 their necks in the barn-yard, or knock them on the 
 head with an axe. 
 
 To become a sportsman, the first thing to acquire 
 provided nature has kindly furnished the pro- 
 per groundwork of heart and body, without which 
 little can be done is the art of shooting. A few, 
 very few men become, through fortuitous circum- 
 stances of nature and practice, splendid shots ; many 
 shoot well, and some cannot shoot at all. The 
 author of this work has handled a gun from his 
 twelfth year, and been out with thousands of sports- 
 men, but he never yet saw a dead shot one who 
 can kill every time. 
 
 Crack shots, however, are numerous; and include,
 
 40$ SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN". 
 
 according to Frank Forester, those who, in covert 
 and out of covert, the season through, will kill three 
 out of five of the birds that rise fairly within range ; 
 but in the opinion of the author, the application 
 should be extended to any man who can kill two 
 out of five on an average. This calculation, how- 
 ever, has no reference to fair shots ; every bird that 
 rises within twenty-five yards and is seen, though it 
 be but for an instant, and many that rise at thirty- 
 five yards, are to be counted. 
 
 In our country there is so much covert, that the 
 man who picks his birds and only fires at open 
 chances, is a potterer, unworthy even of the com- 
 mon-place name of gunner ; he has nothing of the 
 sportsman and little of the man about him. Afraid 
 to miss, anxious to boast of his skill, desirous of sur- 
 passing his friends, he unites the qualities of braggart 
 and sneak. 
 
 Be liberal in your shots ; do not grudge ammuni- 
 tion, nor dread the disgrace of a miss the disgrace 
 of eluding the trial is far greater; and no man who 
 waits for open shots, and acquires a hesitating man- 
 ner, will ever effect anything brilliant. If you miss, 
 there are always plenty of excellent excuses at hand 
 your foot slipped, the bird dodged, a tree inter- 
 vened ; or, you hit him hard, cut out his feathers, 
 or even killed him stone dead, but he did not fall at 
 once. If you doubt the validity of these excuses, 
 go out with the best shot you know, and observe 
 whether he does not furnish you with ten times tho 
 number in a week.
 
 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 403 
 
 Now, the author cannot shoot, and never could ; 
 but he manages to bring home as many quail, wood 
 cock, snipe, rail, ruffed grouse, and ducks, on the 
 average, as any of his friends. He observes that 
 most of them miss as often ns he does, with no bet- 
 ter excuses, and some far oftener ; but still lie never, 
 to the best of his belief, saw the season during which 
 he killed that is, bagged one-half of the birds he 
 shot at. Some professionals, of course, shoot at one 
 kind of game wonderfully; the gunnel's of Long 
 Island Bay are astoundingly accurate on wild-fowl, 
 but would not kill one quail in a week ; while some 
 men who could scarcely touch a duck, handle their 
 guns splendidly in the thickest cover. Professionals, 
 however, usually yield the best chances to their em- 
 ployers, and may be more skilful than they seem; 
 but among amateurs the author claims a rank that 
 will at least entitle him to judge of others. 
 
 The majority of persons rarely consider how many 
 birds escape, without the fault of the marksman ; at 
 over thirty yards the best gun, especially when a 
 little dirty, will leave openings in the charge where 
 a bird may be hit with only one shot, if at all. 
 Ducks, the larger bay-snipe, ruffed grouse, and, 
 above all, quail late in the season, will carry off 
 several shots flying away apparently unhurt, al- 
 though in the end they may fall dead. If the gun 
 was held perfectly straight this would happen less fre- 
 quently ; but to so hold it is almost impossible, for no 
 living man could kill, once in a dozen times, a flying 
 bird with a single ball ; and even then the probabi-
 
 404 
 
 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 
 
 litios are, that a yellow-leg snipe shot at more than 
 thirty-five yards off, would once in five times carry 
 away the few pellets that may strike him ; and at 
 forty yards escape entirely untouched. If the reader 
 will select the best target his gun can make with an 
 ounce of No. 8 shot at forty yards, and see how 
 many spaces there are entirely vacant large enough 
 to contain a snipe, he will be convinced that the 
 above statement is correct ; and at fifty yards, the 
 chances are three to one against the marksman. Sir 
 Francis Francis, who is a good authority in Eng- 
 land, says, that to kill one bird in two shots is good 
 shooting ; and there the grounds are almost always 
 open, while the reverse is the case with us. 
 
 Do not be discouraged, therefore, if the un gets 
 in your eyes, your foot slips, the bird dodges, a few 
 floating feathers are the only result of your effort, 
 or you make a clean miss; others do the same. 
 Neither lose your temper nor curse your luck, as by 
 so doing you may excite your nerves and injure 
 your shooting, and cannot improve it. Be cool, 
 never shoot without an attempt at aim, if it is only 
 where the bird disappeared; take your disappoint- 
 ments pleasantly, strive to do your best, and you 
 will improve. 
 
 Many ducks fly at least ninety miles an hour; 
 that is, twenty-six hundred yards a minute, or forty- 
 four yards a second ; if, therefore, a duck starts at 
 your feet with that velocity, and you require a 
 second to cover him, he will be out of range ; or 
 if he is flying across, and you dwell one forty-fourth
 
 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 405 
 
 part of a second on your aim, you will miss him. A 
 quail, late in the season, flies as fast as this, and rises 
 with a rapidity equal to his flight. He is often found in 
 coverts, dodges and twists with remarkable skill and 
 judgment, frequently flies off in a direct line behind 
 the thickest bush, and requires the perfection of 
 training to bring down with certainty. These are 
 difficulties that patience alone can overcome ; for if 
 shooting were simple, there would be no art or pleas- 
 ure in it. 
 
 All books on sporting tell you to fire ahead of 
 cross shots, and in this they are right ; but the rea- 
 son they give is, that time is necessary for the shot 
 to reach the object in this they are wrong ; shot 
 moves infinitely faster than the bird, and for prac- 
 tical purposes, reaches its mark instantaneously. 
 Human nerves and muscles, however, are imperfect, 
 and it requires an instant, an important one, to dis- 
 charge the gun after the aim is taken. The result, 
 therefore, is the same, and you must endeavor to 
 shoot ahead of the bird ; and if he is flying fast, far 
 ahead of him. If the motion of the object is follow- 
 ed and the gun kept moving before the discharge, 
 some writers allege no allowance need be made, but 
 it is so difficult not to pause slightly, that it is bet- 
 ter in all cases to allow some inches. 
 
 To follow the motion of a very fast-flying bird, is 
 almost, if not quite impossible, and the attempt to 
 do so at all, is apt to create a popping habit. When 
 a broad-bill, driving before a strong northwester, 
 darts past, the best plan is to try and fire many feet,
 
 406 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 
 
 even ten or fifteen, ahead of him ; and then you will 
 rarely succeed in discharging your piece before he is 
 abreast of the muzzle, and frequently will lag behind 
 him. The aim must be taken on the line of flight, 
 and a little attention will convince you that the bird 
 is up with the sight ere the trigger is fairly pulled. 
 A knowledge of this principle, and an ability to 
 practise it, may be said to be the art of dnck-shoot- 
 ing; as in that there are a vast majority of cross 
 shots, and the birds fly rapidly. 
 
 There is an erroneous idea that the eye must be 
 lowered close down to the breech, in order to have 
 a correct aim ; but, while it is apparent if the neck is 
 not bent at all there can be no aim, a slight inaccuracy 
 will not only make no difference, but will give an 
 advantage by throwing the shot high. It will be 
 perceived, on fastening the gun in an immovable 
 position, that the eye may be moved from near one 
 hammer to the other, and the aim altered but a few 
 inches, on an object thirty yards distant an inac- 
 curacy, considering the spread of shot, which is 
 utterly unimportant. 
 
 So also, although by the attraction of gravitation 
 the charge falls somewhat, the deflection is too in- 
 considerable to merit attention. 
 
 After watching himself carefully, reading what 
 the best authors have written, and comparing ex- 
 periences with his friends, the author has concluded 
 that experienced sportsmen miss from hesitation in 
 pulling the trigger, dwelling on the aim, and nerv- 
 ously shrinking from the recoil. The first fault
 
 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 407 
 
 arises from some temporary or permanent con- 
 dition of mind or body, the second from anxiety 
 to make assurance doubly sure, and the last from 
 habit. 
 
 If a man is naturally slow he can never shoot fast- 
 flying birds, but if his fingers are stiff from cold he 
 can warm them. A resolution to fire boldly, and not 
 to dread missing, will cure the over-anxiety that 
 destroys its own intent, but to meet the recoil with- 
 out giving to it, or pushing against it, which is the 
 more common mistake, is often extremely difficult. 
 This unfortunate habit, occurring at the moment of 
 highest excitement amid the noise and smoke, is 
 rarely noticed by the guilty party, and some will at 
 first stoutly deny its existence. 
 
 To mind the recoil of a gun seems pusillanimous, 
 and few can believe, till assured by actual experi- 
 ment, that it equals sixty or seventy pounds, and 
 will crush the bones of the body if immovably fixed. 
 Let the reader observe the next time that his gun is 
 unwittingly left at half-cock, how far he will pull it 
 out of aim, and how he will push against it, when at- 
 tempting to discharge it at game. An acquaintance 
 of the writer, who would scout the idea of being 
 affected by the recoil of his gun, and indeed would 
 have sworn " it did not kick a bit," was once chas- 
 ing a diver on a placid, sluggish stream, in a dug-out. 
 When the bird rose close to the boat, the sportsman 
 was standing erect, poising himself with care in the 
 unsteady craft, but as he pulled the trigger he in- 
 stinctively pushed so hard, that, as the cap snapped,
 
 408 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 
 
 he lost his balance, upset the canoe, and pitched for- 
 ward head-foremost overboard ! 
 
 Probably one half of the fair shots that are missed 
 escape on account of this unfortunate nervousness ; 
 and it is a habit that can only be cured by inces- 
 sant care and unrelaxed watchfulness. Anything 
 that affects the nerves, as smoking or drinking, in- 
 creases the difficulty, and the sudden flushing of a 
 bird will cause it. Unhappily it is apt to be most 
 prevalent when the shooting is good and the sports- 
 man excited, thus ruining many of his best days. 
 With heavy loads, or what is known as a kicking 
 gun, the error will be aggravated; and most per- 
 sons have no idea of the proper proportions of 
 powder and shot, putting in immense quantities of 
 the latter and sparing the former. 
 
 The true load for a gun not exceeding eight 
 pounds in weight, regardless of its size or bore, is 
 one ounce and a quarter of shot and three drachms 
 of the strongest powder, or three and a half drachms 
 of common powder. The same proportion should 
 be retained if the gun is heavier or the charge in- 
 creased. Where more shot is used power is lost 
 and recoil aggravated; and if the powder is not 
 augmented one ounce of shot will do better execution 
 than two. 
 
 Many persons who have ascertained this fact and 
 practise upon it, will inform you that they drive 
 their shot through the birds, and consequently kill 
 them instantly. This is a mistake ; small shot are 
 rarely, if ever, driven through a bird ; but where
 
 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 409 
 
 the force is increased the blow is much harder, and 
 stuns. It is the velocity rather than the size or 
 number of the shot that tells. A soldier in battle 
 was struck on the belt-plate by a spent minie bullet 
 not a half inch in diameter, and he described him- 
 self as feeling that he had been torn to pieces, and 
 that a cannon-ball had gone directly through his 
 body. 
 
 The size of the shot is to be proportioned to the 
 size of the bird weight, of course, being an ele- 
 ment of power and telling on each individual pellet 
 but the more the aggregate amount can be re- 
 duced the less the recoil. Six drachms of powder 
 and one ounce of shot, will not occasion as much re- 
 coil as three drachms of powder and an ounce and a 
 half of shot. 
 
 The gun should always be held firmly to the 
 shoulder, and the shoulder never rested against 
 a solid substance : indeed, the collar-bone may be 
 broken by simply firing directly upwards. There- 
 fore, never fire in the air while lying on your back 
 upon the ground, and be careful when shooting at 
 ducks from a boat not to support yourself upon the 
 latter. 
 
 If the reader still doubts the universally disas- 
 trous effects of cringing at the moment of discharge, 
 let him have an assistant to load the gun out of 
 sight, who without his knowledge shall vary the 
 load, and occasionally put in none at all. Then let 
 the reader fire at a mark, and in spite of the efforts 
 which he will naturally make, he will find when
 
 410 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 
 
 there is no load, and consequently nothing to dis- 
 tract his attention, that he does shrink, and pull the 
 muzzle somewhat off the object. 
 
 This book is not written for beginners ; there are 
 plenty of works with every variety of instruction 
 in them, and the reader is supposed to have read 
 them, digested their contents, acquired a knowledge 
 of the gun, and some skill in its use, and to have 
 been frequently in the field, but to be perfect 
 neither in the use of the gun, nor the practice of the 
 sportsman's art. There are, however, a few simple 
 suggestions that may prove valuable, not only in 
 acquiring the ability to shoot, but in restor- 
 ing it where, from want of practice, it has dimi- 
 nished. 
 
 The sportsman must be as quick and ready in 
 handling his gun as the juggler in handling his 
 tools ; he must be able to bring it to his shoulder 
 and point the muzzle at a stationary mark simul- 
 taneously, to aim in every direction Avith equal 
 facility, and to follow a moving object accurately. 
 This is merely mechanical, and is acquired, like 
 every other mechanical art, by dint of practice. 
 
 Some writers recommend firing at turnips tossed 
 through the air by an assistant, and this is well; 
 but an equally advantageous plan is to throw a soft 
 ball about a room and take aim at it, pulling the 
 trigger every time, with an unloaded and uncocked 
 gun. The sole, but important, recommendation of 
 this idea is, that it may be carried out anywhere 
 and at all seasons, and if the reader will try it daily
 
 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN". 411 
 
 for a week before going into the field, he will per- 
 ceive the effects. 
 
 So also, to acquire quickness : if the reader will 
 throw two small objects pennies, or the like into 
 the air, and endeavor to aim at or hit them both 
 before they reach the ground, he will in a short time 
 obtain such facility that he will be able to lay down 
 his gun, and after throwing the pennies, to pick it 
 up and hit them both twice out of three times. 
 
 To shoot at pigeons from a trap, robins from 
 trees, and even swallows on the wing, although the, 
 practice differs greatly from shooting at game, is 
 useful to a certain extent ; but steady and long-con- 
 tinued practice of this nature is injurious rather 
 than beneficial. It is somewhat notorious that the 
 celebrated pigeon-shots are generally poor marks- 
 men in the field, and entirely at a loss in thick 
 covert. 
 
 After all, howevei*, the best place to learn the use 
 of the gun, while it is by all odds the pleasantest, is 
 in the field ; where, amid the thousand beauties of 
 nature, and under the excitement of the presence of 
 game, the sportsman by slow degrees overcomes 
 the innumerable difficulties that surround the art 
 of shooting flying. 
 
 Closely allied to skill in killing the right object is 
 the ability to avoid killing the wrong one. A gun is 
 extremely dangerous how much so is known only 
 to those who have handled it long ; in spite of the 
 best care it will occasionally go off at unexpected 
 times, and in careless hands is sure, sooner or later,
 
 412 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 
 
 to do terrible damage. Every possible precaution 
 must "be taken, vigilance must never be relaxed, the 
 muzzle must under no circumstances point towards 
 the owner or his companions ; if two men are crawl- 
 ing through thick brush, the gun of the first must 
 point forwards, and of the last, backwards; the caps 
 of muzzle-loaders should be removed on getting 
 into a wagon, and when the loaded weapon is left 
 in a house the hammers ought never to be left 
 down on the caps ; but, above all, no man who is 
 not in search of an early grave should pull a gun 
 towards him by the barrels. 
 
 These rules are simple, and the reasons for them 
 apparent; if the hammer is on the cap, a blow on it, 
 or its catching on a twig, will discharge the load ; 
 if a horse runs away, as horses have an unpleasant 
 habit of doing, even if the lock is at half-cock, the 
 tumbler may be broken down; if a gun is capped in 
 a house, every one but an idiot knows it is loaded; 
 and if it is drawn towards a person as will be 
 often done by thoughtless people in taking it from 
 a wagon or lifting it from a boat or from the ground 
 it is almost sure to go off. 
 
 In the field it should be carried either at whole or 
 half-cock; authorities differ as to which of these 
 two modes is the safer. If the hammer is at full 
 cock, a touch on the trigger will set it loose ; if it is 
 at half-cock, in the excitement of cocking it when a 
 bird rises unexpectedly, it will often slip uninten- 
 tionally. I prefer the former method, believing 
 that the sense of danger makes the person more
 
 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN-. 413 
 
 careful, and that the risk of a twig's touching the 
 trigger in spite of the trigger-guard is very slight, 
 while the weapon is ready for instant use, and only 
 has to be pointed at the object and discharged. 
 Moreover, I have twice seen a gun that was at half- 
 cock discharged when the sportsman was in the act 
 of cocking it hastily, and twice when putting it 
 back to half-cock; but the piece should never for a 
 moment be trusted out of the sportsman's hands 
 without his first putting it at half-cock ; nor should 
 he ever cross a fence without the same precaution. 
 In changing from whole to half-cock, pass the ham- 
 mer below the first notch, so as to hear a distinct 
 click when it is drawn back. 
 
 Countrymen when about to walk a log over a 
 rapid stream, will usually carefully put the hammers 
 down on the caps, and placing the butt on the log, 
 steady themselves by it, thus insuring their destruc- 
 tion if they should happen to slip ; and if they stand 
 on a fence they do the same thing, and rest the 
 stock on the upper rail. Not only should such fol- 
 lies be avoided, but the gun should never be leaned 
 against a tree, as thoughtless people are apt to do 
 when they stop at a spring to drink, and never 
 placed where it can slip or roll. 
 
 "When you desire to reload a muzzle-loader, put the 
 hammer of the loaded barrel at half-cock, and if the 
 right barrel has been discharged, set down the butt 
 so that the hammers are towards you, and the con- 
 trary way if the left barrel is to be loaded ; in this 
 manner you will avoid bringing your hand over the
 
 414 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 
 
 loaded barrel, and in case the other charge should 
 go off you would lose the end of your thumb, perhaps, 
 but save most of your fingers. 
 
 From the foregoing rules, which apply mainly to 
 muzzle-loaders, it will be seen how much safer arc 
 breech-loaders ; with them the entire charge can be 
 withdrawn on entering a house or crottino: into a 
 
 C7 O O 
 
 wagon, and there is absolutely no danger to fingers 
 or thumb in the process of loading. And in carrying 
 the weapon on long tramps in the woods, where it 
 is frequently removed from boat to shoulder, from 
 shoulder to boat, and from wagon to case, and when 
 it has to be ready at any instant, with the muzzle- 
 loader the only possible precaution is to leave the 
 nipples without caps, which are to be carried in the 
 vest pocket, and must be removed after every vain 
 alarm; while with the breech-loader, the charge 
 itself is not inserted till needed. 
 
 With these few suggestions, which are applicable 
 not merely to the kinds of sport treated of in this 
 volume, but to every species of shooting, we leave 
 the young sportsman to his own resources and to the 
 knowledge that he will acquire in the field, hoping 
 that he may find something in them that will aid him 
 to kill reasonably often the game he points at, and 
 to avoid the dreadful misfortune of injuring a friend 
 or companion.
 
 CHAPTEK XL 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR BUILDING A BATTERY. 
 
 A battery, or sink-boat as it is called in some 
 parts of the country, is a narrow box with a plat- 
 form around it, so arranged that the weight of the 
 shooter will sink it so nearly level with the water 
 that the ducks will not notice it when it is hidden 
 among the stand of stools that are always anchored 
 around it. The box is almost square, narrowed a 
 little on the bottom and at the foot, twenty-two 
 inches across at the head, eighteen at the foot on the 
 top, and four less on the bottom; the two end pieces 
 are of one and a half inch oak, the sides of three- 
 quarter inch white pine. It is fifteen inches deep, 
 except at the head, which shoals up to six inches, 
 beginning about two feet abaft the end. This is 
 done in order to enable the sportsman to look over 
 the edge of the box without getting a cramp in his 
 neck, and besides to reduce the flotation of the bat- 
 tery as much as possible, which is a most important 
 thing to effect. The narrowing of the bottom is for 
 the same purpose of diminishing the buoyancy, for 
 as it has to be sunk to the level of the water if the 
 weight of the sportsman will not bring it down suf- 
 ficiently, iron weights, or what is far preferable, 
 iron decoys, have to be placed in it or on it, and 
 weights in the box are always in the way.
 
 416 BISECTIONS FOK BUILDING A BATTERY. 
 
 Two oak carlings are cut out six feet long, one 
 and a quarter inch thick, and two and a half wide 
 in the middle, tapering off to one and a quarter at 
 the ends, with, a bow or spring of an inch from the 
 center to the extremities. Nail these firmly on each 
 end an inch below the top of the box, and to them 
 fasten the platform, which is made of planed stuff 
 ten feet long, and to each end of which a batten is 
 nailed as well as a short additional carling in the 
 middle, projecting from the side of the box. Fill 
 in the head and foot of the platform with short 
 pieces, so as to make it compact, and take especial 
 care to have it fit tightly around the box. As it is 
 made of three-quarter inch stuff, there will be left a 
 quarter of an inch all around the box to which, 
 when the other work is done, a narrow piece of lead 
 is nailed that can be raised to keep out the water in 
 rough weather. Two boards, or what is better, two 
 frames covered with duck, are hinged together by 
 leather hinges. These are one foot wide each, and 
 as long as the platform, and are hinged to it on both 
 sides. A foot-piece made of two boards is hinged 
 to the foot in the same way. To the head it is cus- 
 tomary, on Long Island, to fasten a fender of the 
 width of the battery and wings, and eighteen or 
 twenty feet long. It is made of duck nailed to thin 
 wooden slats, is tied on to the battery when in use, 
 and taken off at other times. In other parts of the 
 country it is customary to dispense with the fender 
 and substitute a head wing of three boards hinged 
 on like the foot and side wings. A single board,
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR BUILDING A BATTERY. 417 
 
 fourteen to sixteen inches wide, can be used at the 
 foot in place of the double foot wing. Sometimes 
 an additional row of lead is put on about the middle 
 of the platform as an additional breakwater. 
 
 The battery is anchored at both ends. From the 
 head of the fender a sort of bridle, a short rope tied 
 into the two corners, is fastened at the center or 
 bight to the anchor rope. A small grapnel or light 
 anchor is used at the head, as it is important that it 
 should not drag, while at the stern, to a rope led 
 through a hole in the foot board, a stone is fastened. 
 This is arranged in this way as it is occasionally 
 necessary to haul it in and throw it out again on a 
 change of wind. The entire surface of the battery, 
 wings and all, is to be painted a dull blue, as near 
 the color of the water as .possible. The necessary 
 iron decoys, to bring the whole structure down to a 
 level with the water, are set upon the platform, and 
 the stand of stools, not less than a hundred and 
 fifty, and double that number is better, are placed 
 around the battery, mostly at the foot and towards 
 the left side if the shooter is right-handed. A bot- 
 tom board of half-inch stuff, with half-inch cleats 
 under it, is put in the bottom of the box for the 
 gunner to lie on, and all is ready for the exercises to 
 begin. A sink-box made on this plan will stand 
 quite a heavy sea, but care must be exercised in tak- 
 ing it up that the wind does not get under the fen- 
 der when it is being hauled aboard the sailing vessel, 
 that is ordinarily used in this kind of shooting, for 
 if it does, and it is blowing at all hard, the fender,
 
 418 DIRECTIONS FOR BUILDING A BATTERY. 
 
 box, platform and all will be lifted out of the water 
 and tossed skyward. Wear dull-colored clothes, nev- 
 er a red shirt, and a cap in battery shooting. And 
 first and last, remember never to rise to shoot before 
 the birds are well into the lower portion of the 
 stools. More birds are lost by getting up too soon 
 to shoot than from any other cause.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE following technical descriptions are taken 
 mainly from " Giraud's Birds of Long Island," a 
 work that is now almost out of print, but which, is 
 more valuable to the student of nature than some of 
 its more pretentious rivals ; and I have interpolated 
 such suggestions and made such alterations as my 
 experience dictated and the purposes of this work 
 demanded. A discourse on the wild-fowl of the 
 Northern States hardly seemed complete without 
 such a description of them as would enable the sports- 
 man to distinguish one from another ; and yet it was 
 not within the purview of a work intended for 
 sportsmen, to devote much attention or many of its 
 pages to ornithology. This is therefore condensed 
 into an Appendix, where it will not trouble the 
 general reader, but will be easy of reference when the 
 information it contains is wanted. 
 
 THE GOOSE. 
 
 Genus Anser, Briss. 
 
 Generic Distinctions. In this class of birds, the 
 bill is shorter than the head, rather higher than 
 broad at the base ; head small, compressed ; neck 
 long and slender ; body full ; feet short, stout, and
 
 420 APPENDIX. 
 
 central, which enables them to walk with ease ; wings 
 long ; tail short, rounded. 
 
 THE WILD GOOSE. 
 
 Canada Goose. 
 Anas OanadensiSj Wils. 
 
 Specific Character. Length of bill from the corner 
 of the mouth to the end, two inches and three-six- 
 teenths; length of tarsi, two inches and seven- 
 eighths ; length from the point of the bill to the end 
 of the tail, about forty inches ; wing, eighteen ; the 
 head and greater portion of the neck black ; cheeks 
 and throat white. Adult with the head, greater 
 part of the neck, primaries, rump, and tail, black ; 
 back and wings brown, margined with paler brown ; 
 lower part of the neck and under plumage, whitish- 
 grey ; flanks, darker grey ; cheeks and throat white, 
 as are the upper and under tail-coverts. The plu- 
 mage of the female rather duller. 
 
 This bird is nowhere very abundant, but migrates 
 across the Northern States in their entire breadth 
 from ocean to ocean ; it obeys the call well, and 
 stools readily if the gunner is carefully concealed. 
 It is the latest in its migrations of the wild-fowl. 
 
 THE BKANT. 
 
 Barnacle Goose Brent Goose. 
 Anas Bernicla, Wils. 
 
 Specific Character. Bill black ; head and neck all 
 round black ; a patch on the sides of the neck white ;
 
 APPENDIX. 421 
 
 upper parts brownish-grey, the feathers margined 
 with light greyish-brown ; quills and primary coverts 
 greyish-black ; fore part of breast light brownish- 
 grey, the feathers terminally margined with greyish- 
 white ; abdomen and lower tail-coverts white ; sides 
 grey; feathers rather broadly tipped with white. 
 Length two feet ; wing fourteen inches and a half. 
 Female rather smaller. 
 
 The brant is not fond of the fresh lakes and streams, 
 but prefers the ocean and its contiguous bays and 
 lagoons ; it is far more abundant along the sea-coast 
 than upon the western waters, arid in fact I am not 
 aware that I have ever killed one in the inland States. 
 It responds to its peculiar note, stools well, and is 
 often killed in great numbers on the South Bay of 
 Long Island. 
 
 THE SWAN. 
 Genus Cygnus, Meyer. 
 
 Generic Distinctions. Bill longer than the head, 
 higher than broad at the base, depressed and a little 
 widened towards the end; upper mandible, rounded, 
 with the dorsal line sloping; lower mandible flat- 
 tened, with the angle very long, and rather narrow ; 
 nostrils placed near the ridge ; head of moderate 
 size, oblong, compressed ; neck extremely long and 
 slender; body very large, compact, depressed; feet 
 short, stout, placed a little behind the centre of the 
 body ; tarsi short ; wings long, broad ; tail very short, 
 graduated.
 
 422 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE WHITE SWAN. 
 
 American Swan. 
 Cygnus Americanus, Aud. 
 
 Specific Character. Plumage, pure white; bill 
 and feet black ; length of the specimen before us, 
 four feet ; wing twenty-one and a half inches. 
 
 These magnificent birds, the most majestic of the 
 game-birds of our continent, are rarely shot to the 
 northward and eastward of Chesapeake bay, but 
 are much more abundant in the far West even to 
 and beyond the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 FBESH-WATER DUCKS. 
 
 Genus Anas, Linn. 
 
 Generic Distinctions. Bill higher than broad at 
 the base, widening towards the end, and about the 
 same length as the head ; the upper mandible with a 
 slight nail at the end ; neck rather long ; body full ; 
 wings moderate, pointed ; feet short, stout, and placed 
 behind the centre of the body ; walks with a wad- 
 dling gait ; hind toe furnished with a narrow mem- 
 brane. 
 
 MALLARD. 
 
 Green Head, English Duck, Grey Duck (female), the 
 Duck, the Wild Duck. 
 
 Anas Boschas, Wils. 
 
 Specific Character. Speculum bright purple, re- 
 flecting green, bordered with black; secondaries
 
 APPENDIX. 4-23 
 
 broadly tipped with black; secondary coverts to- 
 wards their ends white, broadly tipped with black ; 
 adult male with the entire head and upper part of 
 the neck bright green, with a few touches of red- 
 dish-brown passing from the forehead, on the occi- 
 put; middle of the neck with a white ring; the 
 lower part of the neck and breast reddish-brown, 
 approaching to chocolate ; fore part of the back light 
 brown, rest of the back darker ; rump black ; upper 
 tail coverts greenish-black ; upper parts of the wings 
 brown, intermixed with grey ; breast, sides, flanks, 
 and abdomen, grey, transversely barred with dusky ; 
 bill greenish-yellow ; feet reddish-orange ; tail round- 
 ed, consisting of sixteen pointed feathers, nearly 
 white ; speculum violet ; length two feet, wing 
 eleven inches. 
 
 Female smaller than the male ; speculum less bril- 
 liant ; general plumage brown ; head and neck 
 streaked with dusky ; the feathers on the back and 
 flanks margined with white, with a central spot of 
 brown on the outer webs ; bill black, changing to 
 orange at the extremity. 
 
 This bird is abundant both at the West and along 
 the coast, but on the fresh water it frequents the 
 mud-holes and shallow marshes, in contradistinction 
 to the open water-ducks that affect the broad un- 
 broken stretches of water.
 
 424 APPENDIX. 
 
 BLACK DUCK. 
 
 Dusky Duck. 
 Anas Obscura, Wils. 
 
 /Specific Character. General plumage dusky ; 
 speculum green, reflecting purple, bordered with 
 black ; secondaries tipped with white. Adult with 
 the forehead, crown, occiput, and middle space on 
 the hind neck brownish-black, the feathers slightly 
 margined with greyish-brown ; cheeks, loral space, 
 and sides of the neck dusky grey, streaked with 
 black ; throat reddish-brown ; general plumage dusky, 
 lighter beneath ; under wing-coverts white ; specu- 
 lum brilliant green ; bill yellowish ; feet reddish- 
 orange. Female rather smaller, plumage lighter, 
 speculum less brilliant. Length of male about two 
 feet ; wing eleven inches. 
 
 These ducks are killed equally in the fresh and 
 salt waters ; they come to the decoys warily. 
 
 GADWALL. 
 
 Welsh Drake, German Duck. 
 Anas Strepera, Wils. 
 
 Specific Character. Speculum white ; secondary 
 coverts black ; upper wing-coverts chestnut red ; 
 general plumage dusky grey, waved with white ; 
 abdomen white. Adult Avith the bill bluish-black ; 
 head and upper part of the neck grey, streaked with 
 dusky darkest on the upper part of the head, as 
 well as the middle space on the hind neck ; lower
 
 APPENDIX. 425 
 
 neck, upper part of the breast and fore part of the 
 back blackish-bvown, the feathers marked with semi- 
 circular bands of white, more distinctly on the fore 
 part of the neck and upper part of the breast ; sides 
 of the body pencilled with greyish-white and dusky ; 
 lower part of the breast and abdomen white, the 
 latter barred with dusky towards the vent ; lower 
 and upper tail-coverts and sides of the rump green- 
 ish-black ; tail greyish-brown, margined with white ; 
 hind part of the back dark brown, faintly barred 
 with white ; primaries brown ; secondaries greyish- 
 brown, tipped with white ; middle coverts reddish- 
 brown; a few of the outer secondaries broadly mar- 
 gined with greenish-black; inner scapulars brown, 
 broadly margined with dull yellowish-brown ; outer 
 undulated with dark brown and yellowish-white; 
 feet dull orange. Female two inches shorter ; about 
 four inches less in extent. Length twenty-one inches 
 and a half; wing eleven. 
 
 This is an ugly duck, and not much esteemed by 
 epicure or sportsman. 
 
 WIDGEON. 
 
 Bald-pate. 
 
 Anas Americana, Wils. 
 
 Specific Character. Bill short, the color light 
 greyish-blue; speculum green, banded with black; 
 under wing-coverts white. Adult male with the 
 loral space, sides of the head below the eye, flppcr 
 part of the neck and throat, brownish-white, spotted
 
 426 APPENDIX. 
 
 with black ; a broad band of white, commencing at 
 the base of the upper mandible, passing over the 
 crown ; behind the eye, a broad band of light 
 green, extending backwards on the hind neck about 
 three inches ; the feathers on the nape rather long ; 
 lower neck and sides of the breast, with a portion 
 of the upper part of the breast, reddish-brown ; rest 
 of the lower parts white, excepting a patch of black 
 at the base of the tail; under tail-coverts same 
 color; flanks brown, barred with dusky; tail grey- 
 ish-brown, tipped with white ; two middle feathers 
 darker and longest ; upper tail-coverts white, 
 barred with dusky; lower part of the hind-neck 
 and fore part of the back undulated with brownish 
 and light brownish-red, hind part undulated with 
 greyish-white ; primaries brown ; outer webs of 
 inner secondaries black, margined with white in- 
 ner webs greyish-brown ; secondary coverts white 
 tipped with black ; speculum brilliant green, formed 
 by the middle secondaries. Length twenty-one 
 inches, wing ten and a half. Female smaller, plu- 
 mage duller, without the green markings. 
 
 This duck is much prized along the sea-coast, but 
 at the West he holds an inferior rank. 
 
 PINTAIL. 
 
 Sprig-tail Pigeon-tail Grey-Duck. 
 Anas Acuta, "Wils. 
 
 Specific Character. Bill long arid narrow, lead 
 color ; at, the tip a spot of black, at the corner of
 
 APPENDIX. 427 
 
 the mouth a spot of similar color; neck long and 
 slender ; speculum bright purple, with reflecting 
 deep green bordered with black; the feathers 
 broadly tipped with white ; tail long and pointed. 
 Adult male with head, cheeks, throat, upper parts 
 of the neck in front and sides, dark brown ; a band 
 of light purple behind the eye, extending about 
 three inches on the sides of the neck ; on the hind 
 neck a band of black, with green reflections, fading 
 as it extends on the back a band of white com- 
 mencing between the two former, passing down 
 the neck on the lower part of the fore neck ; breast 
 and fore part of the abdomen white, tinged with 
 pale yellow hind part of the abdomen and vent 
 greyish-white tinged with yellow, and marked with 
 undulated lines of brown or dusky ; at the base of 
 the tail a patch of black ; under tail-coverts black, 
 margined with whitish ; two middle feathers black, 
 with green reflections, narrow, and about three 
 inches longer than the rest, which are rather long 
 and tapering ; upper tail-coverts ash-grey, margined 
 with yellowish-white, with a central streak of 
 dusky. Rump greyish-brown, marked with undulat- 
 ing lines of white ; sides of the rump cream color ; 
 sides of the body, back, and sides of the breast, 
 marked with undulating lines of black and white. 
 Primaries brown ; shafts brownish-white, darker at 
 their tips; secondaries and scapulars black, with 
 green reflections, the former margined with grey, 
 which is the color of the greater part of the outer 
 web, the latter margined with white; speculum
 
 428 APPENDIX. 
 
 bright purple, with splendid green reflections edged 
 with black, the feathers broadly tipped with white. 
 Length twenty-nine inches, wing eleven. Female 
 with the upper part of the head and hind neck dark 
 brown, streaked with dusky ; sides of the throat and 
 fore neck lighter ; a few touches of rust color on 
 the chin and on the base of the bill. Upper plu- 
 mage brown, the feathers margined and tipped 
 with brownish- white ; lower plumage brownish- 
 white, mottled with brown ; speculum less exten- 
 sive, and without the lengthened tail feathers so 
 conspicuous in the male. 
 
 This duck is more abundant in the neighborhood 
 of the great lakes than along the margin of the 
 ocean; in epicurean qualities it ranks with the 
 black duck. 
 
 WOOD-DUCK. 
 
 Summer-Duck. 
 Anas Sponsa, Aud. 
 
 Specific Character. The pendant crest, the 
 throat, upper portion of the fore neck, and bands 
 on the sides of the neck white, with the speculum 
 blue, glossed with green and tipped with white. 
 Adult male with the bill bright red at the base, the 
 sides yellow ; between the nostrils a black spot 
 reaching nearly to the black, hooked nail ; the head 
 is furnished with long silken feathers, which fall 
 gracefully over the hind neck, in certain lights 
 exhibiting all the colors of the rainbow ; a narrow
 
 APPENDIX. 429 
 
 white line from the base of the upper mandible, 
 passing over the eye ; a broader band of the same 
 color behind the eye, both bands mingling with the 
 long feathers on the occiput; throat and upper 
 portion of the fore neck pure white, a band of the 
 same color inclining towards the eye ; a similar band 
 on the side's of the neck, nearly meeting on the 
 nape ; lower portion of the neck reddish-purple, the 
 fore part marked with triangular spots of white ; 
 breast and abdomen dull white ; sides of the body 
 yellowish-grey, undulated with black ; the feathers 
 towards the ends marked with a broad band of black, 
 succeeded by a band of white ; tips black ; tail and 
 upper tail-coverts greenish-black ; lower tail-coverts 
 brown ; sides of the rump dull reddish-purple ; 
 rump, back, and middle portions of the hind neck, 
 dark reddish-brown, tinged with green ; a broad 
 white band before the wings, terminating with 
 black ; lesser whig-coverts and primaries brown, 
 most of the latter with a portion of their outer 
 webs silvery white ; the inner webs glossed with 
 green towards the ends; secondaries tipped with 
 white ; their webs blue, glossed with green ; the 
 inner webs brown> their crowns violet-blue ; secon- 
 daries black. 
 
 Female, upper part of the head dusky, glossed 
 with green ; side? of the head, upper portion of the 
 sides of the neck, with the nape, greyish-brown ; a 
 white patch behind the eye ; throat white, the 
 bands on the sides of the neck faintly developed ; 
 fore part and sides of the neck, with the sides of the
 
 430 APPENDIX. 
 
 body, yellowish-brown, marked with greyish-brown ; 
 breast and abdomen white, the former spotted with 
 brown ; lower tail-coverts greyish-white, mottled 
 with brown ; tail and upper tail-coverts dark brown, 
 glossed with green ; rump, back, and hind neck, 
 dark brown, glossed with green and purple ; bill 
 dusky, feet dull green. The crest less than that 
 of the male, and plain dull brown. Length twenty 
 inches ; wing eight inches and a half. 
 
 This is nil extremely beautiful duck, but of mode- 
 rate size ; it is rare on the sea-coast, but absolutely 
 swarms during the month of September among the 
 lily-pads of the Western swamps. Fed upon the 
 berry of this plant, called at the South chincapin, it 
 becomes fat and deliciously tender. It does not 
 pay much attention to decoys. 
 
 GREEX-WISTGED TEAL. 
 
 Anas. 
 Anas Crecca, Wils. 
 
 Specific Character. Bill black, short, and nar- 
 row ; the outer webs of the first five secondaries 
 black, tipped with white; the next five plain rich 
 green, forming the speculum; secondary coverts 
 tipped with pale reddish-buff. Adult male with a 
 dusky band at the base of the bill, of which color is 
 the throat ; a faint white band under the eye ; upper 
 part of the neck, sides of the head, and the crown, 
 chestnut brown ; a broad band of bright green com- 
 mencing behind the eye, passing down on the nape,
 
 APPENDIX. 431 
 
 where it is separated by the terminal portion of the 
 crest, which is dark blue ; lower part of the hind 
 neck, a small space on the fore neck, and the sides 
 of the body, undulated with lines of black and 
 white ; lower portion of the fore neck and upper 
 part of the breast reddish-brown, distinctly marked 
 with round spots of brownish-black ; abdomen yel- 
 lowish-white, faintly undulated with dusky ; a patch 
 of black under the tail ; outer tail-feathers buff, in- 
 ner white, with a large spot of black on the inner 
 webs ; tail brown, margined with whitish, the outer 
 feathers greenish-black ; upper parts brown, faintly 
 undulated with black and white, on the fore part of 
 the back ; outer scapulars similar, with a portion of 
 their outer webs black ; lesser wing-coverts brown- 
 ash; greater coverts tipped with reddish-cream; 
 the first five secondaries velvety-black ; the next five 
 bright green, forming the speculum, which is 
 bounded above by pale reddish-buff, and on each 
 side by deep black ; before the wing a transverse, 
 broad white band. 
 
 Female smaller; head and neck streaked with 
 brownish-white and dusky, darker on the upper 
 part of the head ; lower parts reddish-brown, the 
 feathers margined with dusky, upper parts dusky- 
 brown, the feathers margined and spotted with pale 
 reddish-white, without the chestnut red and the 
 green on the head ; the black patch is wanting, as is 
 the white band before the wings, the conspicuous 
 spot on the wings is less extensive. Its short and 
 narrow bill is at all times a strong specific character ;
 
 432 APPENDIX. 
 
 length fifteen inches ; wing seven inches and a 
 half. 
 
 This is an excellent little duck, too confiding for its 
 own security, but capable of saving itself by great 
 rapidity of flight. It is greatly attracted by decoys, 
 and will generally alight among them if permitted. 
 
 BLUE-WINGED TEAL. 
 
 Anas Discors, "Wils. 
 
 Specific Character. Bill bluish-black and long in 
 proportion with the other dimensions of this species ; 
 smaller wing-coverts light-blue ; speculum purplish- 
 green. Adult male with the upper part of the head 
 black ; a broad band of white on the sides of the 
 head, before the eye margined with black; rest part 
 of the head, and upper part of the neck greyish-brown, 
 with purple reflections on the hind neck ; chin black ; 
 lower parts reddish-brown ; lower part of the fore 
 neck and sides of the body spotted with blackish- 
 brown ; breast and abdomen barred with the same 
 color; lower tail-coverts blackish-brown ; tail brown, 
 margined with paler, the feathers pointed, a patch 
 of white on the sides of the rump ; back brownish- 
 black, glossed with green ; the feathers on the fore 
 part of the back and lower portion of the hind neck 
 mai'gined with yellowish- white ; primaries brown ; 
 inner webs of the secondaries same color; outer 
 vanes dark green, which form the speculum; second- 
 ary coverts brown, the outer broadly tipped with 
 white, the inner tipped with blue; tertials dark-
 
 APPENDIX. 433 
 
 green, with central markings of deep buff; feet dull 
 yellow. 
 
 Female without the white patch on the sides of 
 the head ; throat white ; lower parts greyish-brown, 
 the feathers spotted with darker; upper parts 
 blackish-brown, the feathers margined with bluish- 
 white and pale buff; smaller wing-coverts blue; 
 speculum green ; secondary coverts the same as 
 those of the male ; length fourteen inches, wing 
 seven inches and a half. 
 
 This species greatly resembles the last. 
 
 SPOONBILL. 
 
 Shoveller. 
 Anas Clypeata, Wils. 
 
 Specific Character. Bill brownish-black, about 
 three inches in length, near the end it is more than 
 twice as broad as it is at the base ; much rounded 
 and closely pectinated, the size of the upper mandi- 
 ble at the base having the appearance of a fine- 
 toothed comb. Adult male with the head and the 
 neck for about half its length glossy green, with purple 
 reflections ; lower part of the neck and upper part 
 of the breast white ; rest of the lower plumage deep 
 chestnut-brown, excepting the lower tail-coverts and 
 a band across the vent, which is black, some of the 
 feathers partly green ; flanks brownish-yellow pen- 
 cilled with black and blackish-brown ; inner second- 
 aries dark green with terminal spot of white ; outer
 
 434 APPENDIX. 
 
 secondaries lighter green; primaries dark brown, 
 their shafts white, with dusky tips; lesser wing- 
 coverts light blue ; speculum golden-green ; rump 
 and upper tail-coverts greenish-black, a patch of 
 white at the sides of the rump ; tail dark brown, the 
 feathers pointed, broadly edged with white, of 
 which color are the inner webs of the three outer 
 feathers. 
 
 Female with the crown dusky; upper plumage 
 blackish-brown, the feathers edged with reddish- 
 brown ; breast yellowish-white, marked with semi- 
 circular spots of white. Young male with similar 
 markings on the breast ; length twenty inches and 
 a half, wing ten. 
 
 SEA-DUCK. 
 
 Genus Fuligula. 
 
 Generic Distinctions. In this class the head is 
 rather larger, neck rather shorter and thicker, than 
 in the preceding genus (Anas), plumage more dense, 
 feet stronger, and the hind toe with a broad ap- 
 pendage, which is the principal distinction. 
 
 CANVAS-BACK. 
 
 Fuligula Valisneria, Wils. 
 
 Specific Character. Bill black, the length about 
 three inches, and very high at the base ; fore part of 
 the head and the throat dusky; irides deep red; 
 breast brownish-black. Adult male with the fore
 
 APPENDIX. 435 
 
 head, loral space, throat, and upper part of the head 
 dusky ; sides of the head, neck all round for nearly 
 the entire length, reddish-chestnut, lower neck, 
 fore part of the breast and back black ; rest of the 
 back white, closely marked with undulating lines 
 of black; rump and upper tail-coverts blackish; 
 wing-coverts grey, speckled with blackish ; prima- 
 ries and secondaries light slate color ; tail short, the 
 feathers pointed ; lower part of the breast and ab- 
 domen white; flanks same color, finely pencilled 
 with dusky; lower tail-coverts blackish-brown, in- 
 termixed with white ; length twenty-two inches, 
 wing nine and a quarter. 
 
 Female, upper parts greyish-brown ; neck, sides, 
 and abdomen the same ; upper part of the breast 
 brown ; belly white, pencilled with blackish ; rather 
 smaller than the male, with the crown blackish- 
 brown. 
 
 This is without question the finest duck that flies, 
 as it is the largest andgamest ; it is abundant late in 
 the season, but waiy. 
 
 RED-HEAD. 
 
 Fuligula Ferina, Wils. 
 
 Specific Character. Bill bluish, towards the end 
 black, and about two inches and a quarter long ; 
 hides yellowish-red. Adult male with head, which 
 is rather large, and the upper part of the neck 
 all roxind, dark reddish chestnut, brightest on the 
 hind neck ; lower part of the neck, extending on the
 
 436 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 back and upper part of the breast, black ; abdomen 
 white, darker towards the vent, where it is barred 
 with undulating lines of dusky ; flanks grey, closely 
 barred with black ; scapulars the same ; primaries 
 brownish-grey ; secondaries lighter ; back greyish- 
 brown, barred with fine lines of white ; rump and 
 upper tail coverts blackish-brown ; tail feathers 
 greyish-brown, lighter at the base; lower tail coverts 
 brownish-black, rather lighter than the upper ; length 
 twenty inches ; wing nine and a half. Female about 
 two inches smaller, with the head, neck, breast, 
 and general color of the upper parts brown ; darker 
 on the upper part of the head, lighter on the back ; 
 bill, legs, and feet, similar to those of the male. 
 
 This duck, as it is scarcely distinguishable from 
 the canvas-back, and has mainly the same habits, is 
 but little inferior to that incomparable bird. 
 
 BKOAD-BILL. 
 
 Blue Bill. Scaup, Black Head, Raft Duck. 
 Fuligula Marila, Linn. 
 
 Specific Character. The head and neck all round, 
 with the fore part of the brenst and fore part of back, 
 black ; the sides of the head and the sides and hind 
 part of the neck dark green, reflecting purple ; length 
 of bill, when measured along the gap, two inches and 
 five-sixteenths ; length of tarsi one inch and three- 
 eighths ; length from the point of the bill to the end 
 of the tail nineteen inches; wing eight inches and 
 five-eighths ; a broad white band crossing the secon-
 
 APPENDIX. 437 
 
 daries and continues on the inner primaries. Adult 
 male with the forehead, crown, throat, and upper 
 part of the fore neck brownish-black ; sides of the 
 head, neck, and hind neck, dark green ; lower portion 
 of the neck all round, with the upper part of the 
 breast, purplish-black ; rest of the lower parts white, 
 undulated with black towards the vent ; under tail- 
 coverts blackish-brown ; tail short, dark brown, mar- 
 gined and tipped with lighter brown ; upper tail- 
 coverts and rump blackish-brown ; middle of the back 
 undulated with black and white ; fore part black ; 
 wings brown, darker at the base and tips; speculum 
 white, formed by the band crossing the secondaries 
 and inner primaries ; scapulars and inner secondaries 
 undulated with black and white ; secondary coverts 
 blackish-brown, undulated with white. Female with 
 a broad patch of white on the forehead ; head, neck, 
 and fore part of the breast umber brown ; upper parts 
 blackish-brown ; abdomen and lower portions of 
 breast white ; scapulars faintly marked with white. 
 
 WHISTLER. 
 
 Golden Eye, Great Head. 
 Fuligula Clangida, Linn. 
 
 Specific Character. Bill black, high at the base, 
 where there is quite a large spot of white ; head orna- 
 mented with a beautiful crest, and feathers more 
 than an inch long and loose ; insides yellow ; the 
 entire head and upper part of the neck rich glossy- 
 green, with purple reflections, more particularly so
 
 438 APPENDIX. 
 
 on the throat and forehead; rest of the neck, "with 
 the entire plumage, white ; sides of the rump and 
 vent dusky grey; tail greyish-brown; back and 
 wings brownish-black a large patch of white on the 
 latter, formed by the larger portion of the seconda- 
 ries and the tips of its coverts ; legs reddish-orange. 
 Length twenty inches ; wing nine inches. Female 
 head and upper part of the neck dull brown ; wings 
 dusky ; lower parts white, as are six of the seconda- 
 ries and their coverts ; the tips of the latter dusky. 
 About three inches smaller than the male. 
 
 DIPPER. 
 
 Butter Ball, Buffel-Headed Duck, Spirit Duck. 
 
 
 Fuligula Albeola, Linn. 
 
 Specific Character. Bill blue, from the corner of 
 the mouth to the end about one inch and a half, the 
 sides rounded, narrowed towards the point ; head 
 thickly crested, a patch behind the eye and a band 
 on the wings white. Adult male with the plumage 
 of the head and neck thick, and long forehead ; loral 
 space and hind neck rich glossy green, changing 
 into purple on the crown and sides of the head ; from 
 the eye backwards over the head a triangular patch 
 of white ; the entire breast and sides of the body 
 pure white ; abdomen dusky white ; tail rounded, 
 greyish-brown ; upper tail-coverts lighter ; under 
 tail-coverts soiled white ; back and wings black, with 
 a patch of white on the latter. Female upper plu* 
 magesooty-brown, with a band of white on the sides
 
 APPENDIX. 439 
 
 of the head ; outer webs of a few of the secondaries 
 same color ; lower part of the fore neck ash-color ; 
 breast and abdomen soiled white ; tail feathers 
 rather darker than those of the male. Male fourteen 
 and a half inches long ; wing six inches and three- 
 fourths. Female rather smaller. 
 
 The dipper is quite plentiful everywhere in the 
 Northern States, but not much valued. 
 
 OLD WIFE. 
 
 South Southerly, Old Squaw, Long-Tailed Duck. 
 Fuligula Glacialis, Linn. 
 
 Specific Character. Length of bill, from the ter- 
 mination of the frontlet feathers to the point, one 
 inch and one-sixteenth the upper mandible rounded ; 
 the sides very thin ; the bill rather deeply serrated, 
 and furnished with a long nail ; tail feathers acute. 
 In the male the middle pair of tail feathers are 
 extended about four inches beyond the next longest, 
 which character is wanting with the female. Adult 
 male with the bill black at the base ; anterior to the 
 nostril reddish-orange, with a dusky line margining 
 the nail ; fore part of the head white, the same color 
 passing over the head down the hind neck on the 
 back ; eyes dark red ; cheeks and loral space dusky- 
 white, with a few touches of yellowish-brown ; a 
 black patch on the sides of the neck terminating in 
 reddish-brown ; fore neck white ; breast brownish- 
 black, terminating in an oval form on the abdomen 
 the latter white ; flanks bluish-white ; primaries
 
 440 APPENDIX. 
 
 dark brown ; secondaries lighter brown, their coverts 
 black ; a semicircular band of black on the fore part 
 of the back ; the outer two tail feathers white the 
 rest marked with brown, excepting the four acu- 
 minated feathers, which are blackish-brown, the 
 middle pair extending several inches beyond the 
 others. Female without the long scapulars or elon- 
 gated tail feathers ; bill dusky-green ; head dark, 
 greyish-brown a patch of greyish-white on the 
 sides of the neck ; crown blackish ; upper parts dark 
 greyish-brown ; lower parts white. Length of male 
 from the point of the bill to the end of the elongated 
 tail feathers twenty-three inches; wing eight inches 
 and five-eighths. Female about six inches less in 
 length. 
 
 This bird is abundant along the coast, but is 
 generally tough and fishy. 
 
 MERGANSER. 
 
 Genus Mergus, Linn. 
 
 Generic Distinctions. Bill straight, higher than 
 broad at base ; much smaller towards the end ; upper 
 mandible hooked; teeth sharp; head rather large, 
 compressed ; body rather long, depressed ; plumage 
 very thick ; feet placed far behind ; wings moderate, 
 acute ; tail short, rounded.
 
 SHELDRAKE.
 
 APPENDIX. 443 
 
 SHELL-DKAKE. 
 
 G-oosander Weaser. 
 Mergus Merganser, Wils. 
 
 Specific Character. Forehead low; head rounded, 
 crested ; bill bright red, the ridge black, high at 
 base; upper mandible much hooked. Adult male 
 with the head and upper part of the neck greenish- 
 black ; lower portion of the neck white ; under 
 plumage light buff, delicately tinged with rose-color^ 
 which fades after death ; sides of the rump greyish- 
 white, marked with undulating lines of dusky ; fore 
 part of the back and inner scapulars glossy black; 
 hind part of the back ash-grey ; the feathers margined 
 and tipped with greyish-white, lighter on the rump ; 
 upper tail-coverts grey, the feathers marked with 
 central streaks of dusky ; tail feathers darker ; pri- 
 maries dark brown ; wing coverts and secondaries 
 white, the outer webs of the latter edged with 
 black ; the basal part of the greater coverts black, 
 forming a conspicuous band on the wings; under 
 tail-coverts white, outer webs marked with dusky 
 grey, which is the color of the greater part of the 
 web ; bill and feet bright red. Female with the head 
 and upper part of the neck reddish-brown ; throat 
 and lower neck in front white ; breast and abdomen 
 deeply tinged with buff; upper parts and sides of 
 the body ash-grey ; speculum white. Length of 
 male, twenty-seven inches; wing, ten and a half. 
 Female about three inches smaller. Young like the 
 female.
 
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