The Pacific Coast is especially rich in waders and shore birds, there
being upwards of forty species that are more or less common, with some
ten or more that are occasional visitors. Of these few can be
considered game birds, while others are so small that they are rarely
shot by our sportsmen. Many of both the waders and the shore birds are
constant residents. Others come from still farther south for breeding
purposes, while still others breed north of us and migrate throughout
the territorial scope of these articles to spend their winters.
The shore birds, while very common, are hunted but little by the
sportsmen of this region, and many of the smaller species that are
considered quite a delicacy by our eastern brethren are passed by
entirely by our lovers of the gun. The reasons for this will be
obvious to all who have read the preceding pages and noted the
abundance and great variety of larger and better game. By better game
I mean birds that furnish better sport by requiring more skill in
approaching them and better marksmanship in bringing them to bag. The
little mountain plover, of the southern part of the Coast, while not
surpassed even by the jack snipe as a table delicacy, are hunted but
little, even where they are very abundant, because there is little
sport to be had in shooting them. And the same is true, in a great
measure, of several other species. Sportsmen, therefore, are little
acquainted with these birds either as to their names, gastronomic
merits or means of identification.
[Illustration: WHITE-FACED GLOSSY IBIS (Plegadis gaurauna)]