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, seared 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 he some sluggards, who have 

 tarried, spell-bound by the attractions of such a ter- 

 restrial, or, rather ornithological, paradise ; and 

 accordingly, he hitches uj? sl venerable specimen of 

 the genus " Equus^^'' and we start for an excursion 

 " over the hills and far aw^ay." 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 



