THE UPLAND PLOVER 207 
down from the summer sky, makes it the most 
difficult of all sounds to accurately locate. 
Now the sportsman’s troubles commence, for 
that one bird if it pleases (as it usually does) 
can furnish him a whole day’s ‘‘sport’’ by 
tantalizingly keeping just out of range. As the 
name indicates, they dwell mostly in the open 
hayfields, moving on rapid feet through the 
grass in pursuit of the insects which make their 
principal food. In such places as these any 
near approach to them is most difficult, as the 
Upland, after his domestic duties are done and 
his family is brought up, is a very shy and wary 
bird, commonly springing up and away before 
the gunner can get within shot reach, whistling 
merrily his rolling, liquid note as he goes. 
Slender and graceful, long of limb, one of the 
swiftest fliers of a fleet-winged family, the Up- 
land has been unusually favored among our 
dwellers of the wilderness, and comparatively 
few of them fall a prey to the gunner. He can 
run fast—faster than any man—and will give 
a dog a good race. It is laughable to see a gun- 
ner lose his breath and temper in trying to 
catch a wounded bird. 
