File:Florida 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 (14775380473).jpg

Identifier: floridagamewater00roos (find matches)
Title: Florida 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
Year: 1884 (1880s)
Authors: Roosevelt, Robert Barnwell, 1829-1906
Subjects: Hunting Shotguns Florida -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York : Orange Judd Company
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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lover, yel-low-legs, and robin-snij)e, are at least descriptive.Were these generally accepted, a simple and tole-rably accurate system of nomenclature Avould beobtained; and it has been my effort, winle placingthe preferable name at the head of the description ofeach variety, to collate all the other names that inany section of our vast territory are applied to thesame bird. In this attempt I can only be partiallysuccessful; for the ingenuity of the American peoplein coining new names, added to a profound ignoranceof ornithology, has produced a confusion that no oneman can reduce to order. Bay-snipe, except the jjlovers, kriekers, and a fewothers, are not considered delicate eating, contract-ing along the salt marshes a sedgy flavor; but onthe shores of the western lakes, where the freshwater appears to remove this peculiarity, the yellow-legs and yelpers—which are often found in consi-derable numbers, and are called by the generalappellation of plovers—are almost equal in tender,
Text Appearing After Image:
BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 215 juicy delicacy to the English snipe. Whether thesame change is noticeable in the larger varieties, Icannot say of my own knowledge. The gunners have an ingenious way of stringingthem in bunches of a half dozen each, on the longestfeathers taken from their wings, a pair of these beingtied together by the feather ends, and the quillpointsthrust through the nostrils of the birds. It is desi-rable to put them up in small bunches, as under thewarm temperature of summer they will, unless everyprecaution is exercised, soon become tainted. Toprevent this, the entrails should also be carefullyremoved without disturbing the plumage; and alittle salt, or, as many persons recommend, coffee,rubbed inside, and they should be at all times care-fully protected from the sun. Their sedgy flavorgrows stronger Avith every day they are kept; andbeing extremely oily, the least taint renders them,together with all the wild inhabitants of the coast,unfit for food. Bay-snipe are essent

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