PLOVERS 17 



lines are fairly well frequented by them, others 

 sparingly. It was so on our own coast; for the 

 shooters when looking for heavy Plovers, " heavy as 

 lead " was their term for them, used to work these 

 rough belts just out of high-water mark, with their 

 clever spaniels. Couples and single birds rewarded 

 their close hunting ; I fancy that the Grey Plovers 

 on that part were only stragglers that had come 

 with the flights of Golden Plovers and then 

 separated from them ; and that the difference be- 

 tween the habits of the heavy Plovers and the 

 others was well known, their method of searching 

 for them proved. 



One day when out shooting, we heard a shot on 

 one side of us and saw the shooter walk a little 

 distance and pick up something. As he made 

 tracks in our direction we waited for him to come 

 up. To my question of "What luck?" without a 

 word he produced from the pocket of his coat a fine 

 Grey Plover, which had been carefully arranged, 

 not crammed in. As he stroked the breast feathers 

 with one of his fingers, he said, " Hold him in your 

 hand and weigh him ; ain't he a heavy Plover ? 

 Heavy as lead." 



Crawling over and through a bit of stuff such as 

 I have mentioned, with mud-pattens slung at your 

 side, and a gun to bring along too, is far easier to 

 talk about than to do. Supposing you have done 

 it, got on your pattens quiet as a mouse, and 

 sneaked along that line of rotting piles, sea-weed- 

 covered and winkle-dotted, to get at three or four 



