THE UPLAND PLOVER 211 
the grass and without being shot at or in any 
way disturbed, alight in the top of a tall maple 
tree, fully fifty feet from the ground, and stand 
balancing and swaying on the topmost branch 
as easily as any robin might have done, staying 
there until at our getting within gunshot it flew 
away,—and continued flying despite our best 
efforts at stopping it. We have not found any 
of our shooting acquaintances who have seen 
the like, although the Upland makes a regular 
practice of perching upon fences and low 
stumps, and one bird, after leading me a long, 
hot chase through field and pasture, finally ag- 
gravated his offense by alighting on a woodpile 
in a farmer’s dooryard, well out of reach of my 
gun, but not fifty feet from where the propri- 
etor was ‘‘hitching up’’ his team. That bird is 
still enjoying good health for all that I know to 
the contrary. About the last of August the 
scattered families unite in one large flock and 
depart for the nearest marsh, remaining in its 
drier levels until near the middle of Septem- 
ber, when they leave for the south, where they 
pass the winter in our Southern States, par- 
ticularly on the grassy plains of Texas and New 
Mexico. Here during the cold weather there 
