130 With Rod and Gun in New England 



along our shore, and on Nantucket is sometimes so abundant that two or 

 three hundred birds are killed, at a stand, in a day. My favorite locality is 

 the northern shore of Prince Edward island, where I have shot, over my 

 decoys, many very handsome bags. 



" I know of hardly anything more exciting than the approach of a 

 Hock of thousands of these birds to the decoys. It passes through New 

 England in the spring and fall migrations, but does not pause here, in 

 either, longer than two or three days. It arrives from the south about the 

 first of May, in small flocks of fifteen or twenty, and frequents the beach 

 on the shore and marshes, in its neighborhood, where it feeds on small 

 shell-fish, and crustaceans. It is irregular in its visits, in the spring mi- 

 grations, being quite plentiful some years, and in others quite rare ; it 

 passes to the most northern regions to breed. 



" It is in the autumn migrations that these birds are most actively pur- 

 sued by sportsmen. The great flight arrives about the twentieth of August, 

 sometimes a little earlier or later. In some seasons they do not stop in 

 New England, but are often seen, seven or eight miles out at sea, flying at 

 a great height, in immense flocks, towards the south. If a heavy north- 

 east storm prevails, however, during their flight, they are driven to shore, 

 and it is then that the gunners reap a harvest; for, during a storm, the 

 birds fly low, and are easily called to decoys, and their great flocks afford 

 a broad target for heavily-loaded guns. I have known two sportsmen to 

 bag sixty dozen in two days' shooting, and instances are on record of still 

 greater numbers being secured. The flesh of this plover is very delicate 

 and fine-flavored, and the birds are in great demand in our markets." 



" Yes, the golden plover is an elegant bird," said the Judge. " It 

 seems almost incredible, but in my boyhood days I used to shoot numbers 

 of this species in the then marshes of the ' Back Bay ' of Boston, where 

 Copley square and the public library are now located." 



"Yes," said I, "and I also have killed yellow legs, and many other 

 varieties of marsh birds in the same locality." 



"And now, in that section," added the Doctor, "there is probably the 

 finest residential street in America, Commonwealth avenue. What an 

 astonishing change in comparatively a few years " ! 



" I think that the little ringneck plover is one of our neatest and 

 prettiest shore birds," continued the Judge ; " it is one of the most interest- 

 ing species on the beach, and I always love to watch it running along the 

 sands, as it gleans its food among the incoming and retreating waves." 



" There are two species of ringnecks in New England, I believe," 

 said the Judge. 



" Yes," I replied, "the semipalmated plover, /Egialitis scmipalmata, 

 and the Wilson's plover, ALgialitis Wilsonia. The latter bird, however, is 



