196 PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 



panion and half the battle on these occasions is a good 

 companion the latter puts up the birds, taking his chance 

 of a shot, and then having also put up some decoys, a few 

 fields distant from his friend, he waits his chance. The 

 plover and curlew, when disturbed, fly about in all direc- 

 tions, and sometimes give very pretty sport wheeling over 

 the decoys. But as I said before, the chief charm of this 

 sport is in the surroundings. With a fast- trotting nag, a 

 drive along the delightful country roads of the island is a 

 pleasure in itself. Here and there a little creek or mill- 

 dam concealed in the woods, has to be searched for black 

 duck. Again a likely spot is tried for snipe, or an alder- 

 cover beaten for cock, or a flock of curlew are marked down 

 in a pasture, or a flock of golden plover fly whistling over- 

 head. Then the picnic follows on the turf at luncheon- 

 time near a sparkling brook, while the horse, picketed 

 out, is filling himself with white clover. In the evenings, 

 by a judicious choice of halting places, there is generally 

 some flight-shooting to be got at ducks, and if the weather 

 suits, i. e. is wild and stormy, good shooting may be had 

 at the geese, as they come in from their feeding ground 

 on the salt marshes to get their usual drink in the fresh- 

 Avater ponds. A very enjoyable week can thus be passed 

 driving about from place to place in Prince Edward 

 Island. The sportsman, for shooting purposes, is lord of 

 the manor wherever he may go, and if his bag is not very 

 large, at least it is varied, and has cost him nothing but 

 the powder and shot. 



The Hudsonian curlew (Numenius Hudsonicus) is rather 

 a stupid bird that falls an easy prey to the pot-hunter; 

 but as both this bird and also the Esquimaux curlew 



