116 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



what similar to that of the killdeer plover, but 

 much less loud and distinct. They are as large 

 and quite as plump as the reed-bird in Septem- 

 ber, and make a very agreeable variety for the 

 table. On a twenty acre rye-field, which had 

 been strewn with manure during the winter, we 

 killed sixty-three of these birds in the month of 

 January. Before the flock rises they sometimes 

 make a low, curring noise, and after having 

 been shot at, circle swiftly round the field seve- 

 ral times before they alight again. It is seldom, 

 however, that the shooter can knock down more 

 than two or three at a shot, as they fly loosely, 

 and never huddle together on the ground, ex- 

 cept when sunning themselves at noon. In a 

 state of captivity they are very wild and restless, 

 and we have never been able to preserve them 

 for any length of time. 



Large flocks of the little fringilla linaria, or 

 lesser red-poll, appeared in the fields during the 

 past winter. We shot great numbers of them 

 feeding in the stubbles, especially before a 

 storm; and, as far as our experience goes, they 

 are all marked at this season with the crimson 

 patch on the crown. In. a few, the color of the 

 patch was less decided than in others ; but out 

 of hundreds which we examined, not a single 



