PLOVER SHOOTING. 303 



sometimes fifty or sixty yards in length by ten or twelve feet in 

 breadth. This net is quietly dragged by two men over meadows 

 and marshes, the nightly haunts of plovers. It is a very profitable 

 employment for the poor fowler in a district where these birds are 

 abundant, provided there is a market for them when captured ; and, 

 it may be added, provided the fowler abstains from poaching or 

 dragging his net for partridges, a temptation to fen-fowlers not at 

 all times irresistible. 



Plovers are also freely taken with lime-strings pricked out in the 

 marshes, fens, and fields — their customary haunts. They are fond of 

 resorting to ploughed fields, particularly when sown with corn. The 

 time of day for capturing them with lime-strings is the night, or just 

 after twilight : they are too wary to be taken by moonlight. 



