Shooting on Chincoteague Island
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
SHOOTING ON CHINCOTEAGUE ISLAND -- WILLET, CURLEW, GRAYBACKS, ETC.
WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 5, 1877.
CHINCOTEAGUE ISLAND on the coast of Virginia, is so rapidly becoming a favorite resort for sportsmen not only from Washington, but from New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, that a brief description of the place, the shooting, fishing, etc., it is hoped may be interesting, now that the birds are plentiful and the accommodations for visitors ample. What known as the Eastern Shore of Virginia is a peninsula composed of Accomack and Northampton Counties, lying between the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay. Chincoteague Island is in the Atlantic, just east of Accomack County, and separated from it by a body of water known as Chincoteague Bay. The shores of this bay on both sides are covered by extensive salt-water marshes which furnish abundant food and ample shelter for willet (Totanus semipalmatus), gray backs (Tringa canutaus), long billed curlew (Numenius longirostris), Esquimaux curlew (Numenius borealis), and various species of snipe, sandpipers, and other birds usually found upon the salt marshes of our middle districts.
General W. D. Whipple, of General Sherman's Staff; Col. Harry Clark, the efficient Washington agent of the National Press Association, and Master Walter Whipple, a son of the General, recently spent a week at Chincoteague, and had magnificent sport, although the season was just opening. Upon their arrival there they found the hotel crowded with summer visitors from Baltimore, Philadelphia and other cities, but fortunately they were provided with letters of introduction to Lieut. Herring, commanding the revenue marine schooner Report, and that officer had them comfortably quartered. One of the crew of the vessel proved himself to be an excellent cook, and the birds killed during the day were served by him in a style not to be excelled by any professional.
Willet were found to be most plentiful, as they breed in the marshes surrounding the island. Indeed this bird I believe breeds all along the coast from the mouth of the Mississippi to New York, but passes the winter on the shores of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and the gulf coast, where it is known as the stone curlew. The propensity of the birds to remain in the immediate vicinity of the coast is such that it is seldom met with inland even along the shores of large rivers. It is at all times shy and wary, so that in approaching it the sportsman must use the greatest caution. After being once shot at, they watch your motions very closely, and the cry of one bird seems to alarm all within hearing. When wounded and brought to water they swim tolerably well but cannot dive. The young birds now are fat and juicy, and the breeding season being over they are found in flocks, it being their habit for several families to join after that season and live harmoniously together.
The long-billed curlew, the largest of this species found in North America, is the only one which may be classed as a permanent resident. It breeds to a great extent about Chincoteague, though not so abundantly as on the more southern coast of the United States. They are not easily approached, and, besides, it takes a good charge to bring them down. When wounded they skulk off among the thickest vegetation, where they remain perfectly silent. The flesh of this bird does not compare with that of the willet as a delicacy, although many persons consider it good, and they are always found for sale in our Southern markets.
The gray-backs, or red breasted sand pipers, when young and fat, are very palatable. In season they are plentiful, feeding on the small shell fish found at a short distance below the surface, oftentimes in heaps like masses of wet grain. But to give an extended description of the many desirable birds found in the neighborhood of this island would be almost impossible. It affords delightful sport in fishing as well as shooting. Oysters are abundant, and probably there is no place on the Atlantic coast, where the sportsman can enjoy himself more than at Chincoteague. There are a number of persons residing in that vicinity who make a business of furnishing boats and piloting them in search of sport. The gentlemen named who recently visited the island were fortunate enough to secure the services of a veteran guide named Decatur Birch, commonly known as "Cate." He provided the boat, and conducted them to the most desirable shooting places for the very moderate sum of two dollars a day. He is thoroughly posted in his business, and his services are well worth that sum. The hotel at Chincoteague is four stories high, containing about forty-eight rooms, and it should be advertised in the columns of FOREST AND STREAM AND ROD AND GUN, which would greatly add to its popularity and let sportsmen know something about the facilities which the proprietor has to care for them.
The route to the island from New York is by the line of the Old Dominion Steamship company to Lewes, Delaware, as will more fully appear by reference to the advertisement of that company in another column. There are also other routes thereto from Philadelphia and Baltimore.