Shore-bird Shooting 459 



ered with the tracks of plover, and soon the 

 familiar note was heard. There was barely time 

 to make our blinds of seaweed and set the stool 

 when the first birds appeared. Blackbreast in 

 pairs and small flocks, occasionally a curlew and 

 yellowlegs, followed the same course along the 

 edge of the beach, coming within range of the 

 blind if permitted, — and generally they were. 

 For a short time the shooting was fast, and then 

 the inevitable tide turned the flight out of reach. 

 We killed between us some three dozen birds. 

 The young blackbreast arrive in these same 

 localities early in September and are easily shot, 

 coming readily to decoys and answering if whis- 

 tled to. The white breast gives them exactly 

 the opposite appearance of the old bird, and with 

 many of our gunners they go by the name of 

 "pale-belly." As late as October we find them 

 along the coast, sometimes in large flocks. The 

 migration south is continued through the West 

 Indies into Brazil, and there are few places en 

 route where the birds are not hunted. On the 

 Californian coast the black-breasted plover is 

 abundant, and at times appears in large numbers 

 in the interior, through Manitoba and the Missis- 

 sippi Valley. Occasionally these birds are seen 

 in the fields, where they feed on grasshoppers and 

 berries, the flesh under these circumstances at- 

 taining its highest excellence. In the spring the 



