PLOVER-SHOOTING. 205 



and sociable to a degree. They decoy not only once, but 

 often two or three times, to the false flock and the 

 deceitful whistle, until sometimes the greater part of 

 their numbers shall lie dead upon the grass. It is there- 

 fore the main desire of the blind- shooter that something 

 shall keep the birds stirred up. They have no regular 

 movements when left undisturbed, although in some 

 erratic moment a whole flock may take a notion to rise 

 and pass over to some other distant spot. 



The blind of the plover- shooter need be no very 

 elaborate affair. A fringed pit is good, but if the shooter 

 can find some ditch or hollow into which he can crawl, 

 he will find a thin barrier of grass or weeds sufficient, 

 provided he keeps still. The duck-shooter will under- 

 stand this perfectly. It is the motionless shooter in the thin 

 blind who gets the birds. A heavy blind is not desirable. 



Plover decoys are sold on the market. One can 

 secure as large a flock as he desires, but if he has half a 

 dozen decoys he need not feel afraid, if he knows how to 

 call the birds. It is the call that does the business. A 

 passing flock of plover, over half a mile away, will swing 

 about on hearing a call, and will then fairly hunt for 

 the decoys until they find them. The best possible decoys 

 are the wing-tipped live birds, which the shooter, if he 

 be heartless as the market-shooters are, will always pre- 

 serve and tie out among his flock. These, by their 

 motions and their cries, will bring the wild flock in 

 again and again. Much better than the wooden or tin 

 decoys are the dead birds, set up on sticks, much as 

 the duck-shooter sets out his dead ducks for decoys. 

 You will see the market-hunter put out his dead birds 

 so, until he may have fifty or a hundred scattered about 

 him. 



Let no one gather the idea that plover- shooting over 

 decoys is a simple thing, which any fellow can do. It is 



