PLOVER-SHOOTING. 203 



unusual for one gun to kill from 100 to 150 golden plover a 

 day, in this style of shooting, on the prairies and fields of 

 Northern Illinois. It is not a sort of sport demanding 

 any especial skill, and is too apt to be followed by a 

 rabble of pot-hunters, boys, greenhorns, and all the 

 unspeakable mob who hang on the skirts of decent gun- 

 nery. Followed rightly, it is fairly successful early in 

 the season, though never so much so on the golden plover 

 as on the upland plover. At its best form, and in the 

 hands of gentlemen, it is capable of being a bright, 

 breezy, cheerful, and not unwholesome sort of shooting. 

 It may be varied by stalking on horseback, or by the use 

 of a led horse. Sometimes a good caller will bring a flock 

 around for a second shot at this style of shooting. This 

 is most apt to happen when a cripple or two are left 

 standing or running. Like the curlew, the golden plover 

 is loath to leave a comrade in distress, and decoys readily 

 to the note of such a comrade. 



The only artistic and truly sportsmanlike form of 

 sport at the golden plover, however, is in shooting over 

 decoys, to which the birds are called in by an imitation 

 of their whistle. This form of sport is not well under- 

 stood, and is not practiced by very many sportsmen, 

 although doubtless it will soon become more general . It 

 is by all means the most successful and the most interest- 

 ing way to hunt the golden plover. It is the method 

 followed by the most skillful market-hunters. 



In this form of sport, the general principles of decoy- 

 shooting obtain, and the old duck-shooter will be the first 

 to take up the idea well. The main difficulty, of course, 

 is to learn the country where the birds are feeding, and 

 to map out the fly-ways between the feeding-grounds. 

 When such a fly- way has once been established, the 

 shooter who finds it will not be forced to change his blind 

 so often as the duck-shooter, and he will have to deal 



