112 THE JERSEY COAST. 



" Do you know what Frank Forester says on the 

 subject ?" 



Feeling my reputation rising a little, I resumed : 

 " He confuses frost-bird and grass-plover, quoting 

 Audubon as his authority; but he points out the 

 distinctive peculiarity of the plover." 



" If he thinks a grass-plover and a frost-bird are 

 alike, he knows very little of his subject. Why, the 

 frost-bird stools admirably, while the plover never 

 stools at all." 



"Not so fast! Frank Forester was a splendid 

 writer, and upon matters with which he was familiar 

 he was thorough. He has conferred an immense favor 

 upon the American sporting world ; but where he 

 had not personal experience and no one can know 

 everything he had to rely upon others. He has 

 done as much to correct and elevate sportsmanship 

 in this country, to introduce a proper vocabulary, 

 and to enforce obedience to gentlemanly rules, as 

 any man possibly could. As a body, we owe it to 

 him that we are sportsmen, and not pot-hunters. 

 Probably in some places the grass-plover is called a 

 frost-bird." 



" I have more faith in Giraud, and would like to 

 hear what he can tell us about the golden-plover, 

 unless he says that is a sandpiper also." 



" He begins with a description of the black-bellied 

 plover, which is known to us as bull-head, the cha- 

 radrius helveticus, and then describes the American 

 golden-plover, or charadrius pluvialis, and uses 

 these words : ' It is better known to our gunners by 



