GOLDEN PLOVER, CURLEW, GRAY PLOVER. 157 



when he stops suddenly and whirls to shoot. When, 

 by a shot at the flock on the wing, two or three 

 of the plover or curlew are crippled, the others 

 will circle round them, and often offer chances 

 for capital shots. The breech-loading gun is in- 

 valuable in such circumstances as these. Oil one 

 such occasion I remember having killed forty -two • 

 golden plover and curlew, all shot on the wing, 

 before I picked up one of them. JVJany a time I 

 have killed as many as fourteen or fifteen without 

 lifting a bird, there being opportunities to load 

 and fire again and again while the plover swept 

 and circled over the dead and 'wounded of their 

 own flock. Sometimes the flocks of golden plover 

 and curlew are so numerous in a neighborhood, so 

 large in extent, and fly in such a way, that a great 

 number may be killed in a short time. I remem- 

 ber one such time well. It is now twelve years 

 ago, and at that period there was a great deal of 

 unbroken prairie in the neighborhood of Elkhart. 

 I started out after dinner from that place, and 

 drove two miles into the prairie. It had just been 

 burned over, and large flocks of plover and curlew 

 were coming in one after tha other. That after- 

 noon I killed two hundred and sixty-four plover 

 and curlew, and got back to Elkhart at sundown. 



