PLOVER 293 



structed in the heart of the best feeding-grounds of the 

 plover. These may be fashioned of hurdles and straw 

 or of rushes or other material to hand, and it is always 

 advisable to have them fixed up some time before the 

 coming of the plover in the autumn, for if the butts are 

 erected whilst the plover are using the fields, the birds 

 are extremely likely to give the screens a wide berth. 



Most sportsmen acquainted with golden plover and 

 their ways are aware that unwounded birds have the 

 curious habit of dropping earthwards on being shot at. 

 Old gunners know that a shot fired at golden plover 

 passing high overhead out of range will frequently cause 

 them to dart downwards within gunshot. It is a singular 

 habit, and one wonders whether the report of the gun, or 

 the whistling of the shot-pellets around them, causes the 

 birds to act in this strange manner. Just at this moment 

 I cannot recall similar behaviour on the part of other 

 birds; indeed when flying singly, and perhaps also in 

 pairs, golden plover do not appear to be so much addicted 

 to this habit. Unwounded wild-ducks and many other 

 kinds of fowl behave in quite contrary manner, for on 

 being shot at whilst flying overhead they invariably rise 

 almost perpendicularly in the air for several feet. The 

 old flight-shooter frequently profits by this habit of the 

 mallard, for he knows fully well that on missing with 

 his first barrel he has but to steady himself a moment 

 for the second shot in order to retrieve the initial error. 



The Knot is capable of affording the shore-shooter 

 excellent diversion at times. For one thing, this bird is, 

 perhaps, more readily decoyed than most other shore 

 birds, and thus it provides considerable sport for the 

 shooter hidden away in the punt up some rill on the 

 mud-flats, or for the coast-gunner ensconced in a care- 



