THE UPLAND PLOVER 211 



the grass and without being shot at or in any 

 way disturbed, alight in the top of a tall maple 

 tree, fully fifty feet from the ground, and stand 

 balancing and swaying on the topmost branch 

 as easily as any robin might have done, staying 

 there until at our getting within gunshot it flew 

 away,— and continued flying despite our best 

 efforts at stopping it. We have not found any 

 of our shooting acquaintances who have seen 

 the like, although the Upland makes a regular 

 practice of perching upon fences and low 

 stumps, and one bird, after leading me a long, 

 hot chase through field and pasture, finally ag- 

 gravated his offense by alighting on a woodpile 

 in a farmer's dooryard, well out of reach of my 

 gun, but not fifty feet from where the propri- 

 etor was ' ' hitching up ' ' his team. That bird is 

 still enjoying good health for all that I know to 

 the contrary. About the last of August the 

 scattered families unite in one large flock and 

 depart for the nearest marsh, remaining in its 

 drier levels until near the middle of Septem- 

 ber, when they leave for the south, where they 

 pass the winter in our Southern States, par- 

 ticularly on the grassy plains of Texas and New 

 Mexico. Here during the cold weather there 



