THE OBJECTS OF SPOKT. 273 



approved method of shooting them is for several 

 gunners to take the field at once and fire as the 

 birds cross to their feeding or resting-places. I 

 think there is no falling off in the numbers of this 

 bird. They feed on the grain left in the fields by 

 the reapers, and on the seeds of grasses (crab grass) 

 growing in the cotton-fields. 



THE WILD PIGEON. Makes us but occasional 

 visits, only I suppose when it has devoured the 

 mast and other food, which in ordinary seasons it 

 finds in more northern latitudes. 



THE PLOVEK. This is none of the aquatic variety. 

 It visits Carolina in April, for a few weeks, on its 

 way north. It is then thin, and of little culinary 

 value. It returns in August, in such capital condi- 

 tion, that being shot at an elevation of twenty feet, 

 it bursts open from the fall. It is remarkable, that 

 in one and the same day. you will find them spread 

 along the line of the Atlantic sea-board over a 

 distance of .one thousand miles ! We will take the 

 20th of August for example ; and we shall find, 

 that from Newport, Ehode Island, to Savannah, 

 Georgia, plover shall be seen ! They frequent the 

 high, open pastures ; and I have never found them 

 on any grounds but such as were browsed by cattle 



