210 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



no bird that flies which takes on so remarkable an amount 

 of fat as the upland plover. I have often known them to 

 split open across the breast upon falling from no very 

 great height. They fatten very readily when feeding 

 upon wheat- stubble, and are then delicious eating. 



I presume we shall be obliged to call this bird a snipe, 

 although in habit and appearance it is so unlike one. 

 We may find some kinship to the snipe in the bill of the 

 upland plover, which is longer than the head, and slightly 

 curved. The legs are yellow-gray in color, the feet being 

 darker. The head is dark brown, striped with a pale 

 yellow median line, as in the jacksnipe. The sides of the 

 head and neck are streaked with a dusky color, and the 

 eye is surrounded with a yellow-white strip It is a 

 graceful and beautiful bird. 



The upland plover migrates by night, and also by day. 

 It usually flies high, except in rough weather, and moves 

 in straggling bands. In Iowa City, Iowa, in 1878, I once 

 heard a passage of plover at night which lasted for over 

 an hour. The air seemed full of their soft, plaintive cries 

 of "plitt! plitt! pu-litt!" I think there were also some 

 golden plover in that flight. 



The upland plover does not customarily feed in so 

 large flocks as the golden plover, and even when one 

 finds them in considerable abundance, they are apt to 

 appear in long, strung-out bands or scattered little 

 bunches. They do not decoy regularly enough to war- 

 rant the use of decoys, and the shooter need not waste 

 time in putting out a flock. I have, in a few instances, 

 shot them over decoys made of dead birds, but could 

 hardly say that they drew in to the flock; nor is it cer- 

 tain that they will pay more than the slightest attention 

 to a good imitation of their whistle, although they may 

 take a notion to draw in to a call-note once in awhile, 

 when about to alight upon a feeding-ground. They are 



