152 FIELD SIIOOTINO. 



number of fat worms are thrown to the surface. 

 To pick up and feed upon these, the golden 

 plover and curlew will be seen following the 

 ploughman along the furrow. Sometimes they fly 

 a little ahead of the plough and team, some- 

 times abreast of them, and all the time some are 

 wheeling and curling round and dropping in the 

 furrow which has just been made. At such times 

 these birds occasionally become so bold and 

 tame that they come quite close to the horses, 

 and I have known some to be knocked down and 

 killed by the driving-boys with their whips. As 

 a matter of course, this is rather uncommon; but 

 their boldness and tameness, when ploughing is 

 going on, is in strong contrast to their timidity 

 and wariness on other occasions. They seem to 

 be sagacious enough to know that where the men 

 and teams are ploughing there can be no shooting, 

 and they take advantage of that fact. 



The best places for shooting golden plover and 

 curlew in the earlier part of their stay with us 

 are the burnt ground of the prairies, where the 

 grass is beginning to quicken, and those close- 

 eaten and bare spots in the pastures of which I 

 have made mention. It will be best, when going 

 for these birds, to take a dog to bring in wounded 



