308 MANUAL FOR TOTING SPOETSMEN. 



Bristol, Pennsylvania, known as Livingston's manor ; but 

 this was regarded as unusual good fortune, and the experi- 

 ment is scarce likely to be rewarded with success. 



This bird has a soft, plaintive call or whistle of two 

 notes, which have something of a ventriloquial character, 

 and possess this peculiarity, that when uttered close to the 

 ear, they appear to come from a distance, and, when the 

 bird is really two or three fields distant, sound as if near 

 at hand. 



They are found more or less abundantly on Hempstead 

 Heath, as it is called, although not a sprig of heather ever 

 grew on its bare and grassy surface, and on all the open, 

 down-like hills of Long Island. In the neighborhood of 

 Newport, Rhode Island, it is very frequent, and perhaps 

 in that region, more than elsewhere, is pursued by the 

 sportsmen, who visit that pleasant watering-place in 

 summer. 



It is usually shot from chaises, as the easy, two- 

 wheeled gigs of that part of the country are called ; and 

 there is much art in driving up to them, much more, in- 

 deed, than in bringing them down when once within shot. 



The shooter sits in the bottom of the gig, with his left 

 leg advanced on the step, ready to spring out and fire the 

 instant the chaise stops and the bird rises the two move- 

 ments being simultaneous. 



The driver, as soon as he perceives the bird, which 

 looms up large on the bare pasture, drives rapidly round 

 him in gradually decreasing circles, keeping his eye stead- 

 ily on him, and watching every motion, so as to calculate 

 how close he can get before he will be alarmed and take 



