PLOVER SHOOTING. 299 



prising several hundreds of grey and golden plovers and lapwings. 

 The two punters killed, in their joint-shot, upwards of a hundred. 

 They fired simultaneously at the birds, when huddled together on 

 their last legs, on a small space of uncovered ooze, which the flowing 

 tide was every moment creeping upon, and rendering smaller and 

 smaller ; so that the birds sat closer and closer, presenting one of the 

 most favourable chances at plovers I ever saw. I afterwards under- 

 stood that these men had two guineas to share between them, the 

 result of their shot at the plovers. 



I have had excellent sport with small numbers of plovers, in the 

 wild-fowling punt, by attending to their wailing notes, and thus find- 

 ing out their haunts. I have crept close upon them, by lying down 

 in the punt, and paddling towards the bank of the ooze on which 

 they were feeding ; and then, when within gun-shot, on suddenly 

 rising to my knees, and raising a small double-barrelled gun to my 

 shoulder, have had abundant time and opportunity to knock down 

 two, three, or four pair at a double discharge. In absence of a punt, 

 the wild-fowling canoe described at page 229, will be found to an^ 

 swer the same purpose. 



Plovers are much in the habit of picking and feeding in the wash 

 of a flood-tide, as it gradually flows towards the shore. On watching 

 them narrowly, they appear to revel in the surf, as it washes their 

 slender and delicate little legs, causing* them to skip and jump with 

 interesting delight. They may then, with caution, be approached in 

 a punt ; but it is useless to attempt getting at them by land, unless 

 some bank or screen be at hand. They sometimes run along the 

 ground with great velocity ; and, however painful the tone of their 

 call-note, they appear the happiest little creatures of the feathered 

 tribe, when running to and fro on the beach, flirting, and whistling, 

 with pleasing and happy-looking movements. 



Another of their most interesting actions, when running about the 

 shore in unsuspecting* security, is that of opening their elegant little 

 wings, as if intending to fly off, but not actually doing so. It is 

 merely a playful movement, by which they expose the white feathers 

 beneath their wings, and thus put themselves for a few moments 

 in very graceful attitudes. I have observed godwits and oxbirds 

 performing the same antics. 



There is no better time and opportunity for making successful 

 shots at grey and golden plovers, than early in the morning, just at 



