BAY-BIRDS. 153 



notice of tbe stools, is comparatively a solitary bird, 

 and although continually uttering its melodious cry, 

 does not heed a responsive call. 



On the eastern extremity of Long Island, and 

 along the coast of New England, are vast rolling 

 and hilly stretches of land, where there are no trees 

 and little vegetation, besides a short thin grass, and 

 here the plovers rest and feed. They migrate to the 

 southward in August, and appear about the same 

 time scattered from Nantucket to New Jersey. In 

 spite of their shyness and the difficulty of killing 

 them, they are pursued relentlessly by man with 

 every device that he finds will outwit their cunning 

 or deceive their vigilance. 



Rhode Island has long been one of their favorite 

 resorts, but has been overrun with gunners, who 

 follow the vocation either for sport or pleasure, and 

 there, for many years, the grey plover were killed 

 in considerable quantities. Many are still found in 

 the same locality, or further east, as well as at 

 Montauk Point; but at Hempstead Plains, where 

 they were once found quite numerous, they appear no 

 longer ; and the eastern shore of New Jersey being 

 unsuited to their habits, they rarely sojourn or even 

 pause upon it. They travel as well by night as by 

 day ; and in the still summer nights their sweet trill- 

 ing cry may be heard at short intervals ; while dur- 

 ing the day they will often be seen in small bodies, or 

 singly, winging their way rapidly towards the south. 



They are wary, fly rapidly, and are difficult to 

 shoot, and, were it not for one peculiarity, would 

 7* 



