UPLAND SHOOTING. 205 



Where vast unenclosed plains are not to be found, this bird 

 loves to haunt large hill pastures, iallow-fields, and newly 

 pl()Ufj;-hi>d grounds, when- it finds llu- viirious kinds of insect food 

 to wliicli it is so partial, — grasslioppcis, In-t'lles, and all the 

 small coleopterous flies common to such localities, in the grass 

 lands — and worms, small snails, and tlic like, on the lii'lows. 



The (Upland Plover is a shy an.l timid l.ird ; and, on li.ot, it 

 is, for the most part, nearly impossilile to approach it. It feeds 

 on ground such as I have described, in small com])anies — they 

 cannot be called flocks, for they do not usually act in concert, 

 or fly together, rising, if they are startled, one by oiu^, and each 

 taking its own course, without heeding its companions — tliis, by 

 the way, 1 have noticed as a peculiarity of all tht; ujdaiid scolo- 

 pac'ulip, none of which fly, so far as I have ever obsen^ed, in 

 large bodies, wheeling and turning simultaneously, at a signal, 

 as is the practice, more or less, of all the maritime Sandpipers, 

 Tattlers, Plovers, and Phalaropes. While running swiftly over 

 the surface of the ground, they utter a very peculiar and plain- 

 tive whistle, exceedingly mellow and musical, which has the 

 remarkable quality of appearing to be sounded close at hand, 

 when it is in reality uttered at a very considerable distance. It 

 is this note which frequently gives the first notice to the sports- 

 man, that he is in the vicinity of the bird ; and it also gives him 

 notice that the bird is aware of him, and out of his reach ; for 

 no sooner is it uttered, than the Sandjjiper either takes wing at 

 once, or I'uns very rapidly to some distance, and then rising, 

 sweeps round and round in aerial circles, and alights again out 

 of distance. If wing-tipped, or slightly wounded, it runs so ra- 

 pidly as to set pursuit at defiance, and then squats behind some 

 clod of earth, or tuft of grass, to the colors of which its beauti- 

 fully mottled plumage so nearly assimilates it, that it cannot be 

 distinguished, without great difficulty, among the leaves and 

 herbage. 



I have only shot this Sandpiper myself, on a tract of upland 

 pasture and ploughed land near to Bristol, in Pennsylvania, 

 known as " Livingston Manor," where I found the birds very 



