FIELD-DAYS IN CALIFORNIA 



manly amusement, he is treated as a target. He 

 does well to be wary, the warier the better. I 

 could wish that he would never allow a man to 

 come within a mile. So magnificent and innocent 

 a creature to be massacred for sport ! 



For a minute, possibly, my attention was 

 fastened upon the flying bird and his voice as he 

 dwindled out of sight. Then my eyes again 

 rested by chance upon the bar of mud — per- 

 haps two rods in length and a foot or two wide 

 — whence he had flown, and behold, a second 

 wonder ! There stood another bird of pretty 

 much the same dimensions and general color, 

 but of a darker shade, and plainly not a plover. 



For the second time within five minutes I was 

 struck with amazement. By what magic had the 

 bird got there, and, far more important, what in 

 the name of ornithology was I to call him .-* 



His black bill was rather stout and somewhat 

 longer than the plover's, yet still of only mid- 

 dling length for a shore-bird of his size. Evidently 

 he did not probe mud for a livelihood. His fore 

 neck and upper breast were jet-black, curiously 

 divided ("curvingly divided " my pencil put it, 

 with greater exactness) as it ran down upon the 

 white breast ; and his legs were of a bright 

 orange ! 



To my eye he was utterly strange. He had 



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