158 FIELD SHOOTING. 



I got a few- sitting shots on that occasion, but the 

 vast majority of the birds were killed on the 

 wing, while circling round their wounded com- 

 panions. This was done with a muzzle-loader. 

 "With a good breech-loader and plenty of cart- 

 ridges I believe I could have killed five hundred 

 birds that afternoon. Much of the prairie about 

 there, which was then unbroken, has been broken 

 up, and is now wheat, corn, and oat land. The 

 golden plover and curlew are not as numerous in 

 that neighborhood now as they were then. Still, 

 there are plenty of them in the right season of the 

 year. Of late years "I have generally killed from 

 fifty to two hundred plover and curlew a day 

 when out after them especially. This means 

 golden plover, as I never shoot the gray or grass 

 plover in the spring, for a reason I shall presently 

 advance. My bag has seldom been less than fifty, 

 and not often as high as two hundred, and I have 

 commonly shot right along during the season, pre- 

 ferring to do so rather than to go after snipe 

 to the Sangamon and Salt Creek bottoms. The 

 golden plover and curlew are highly esteemed by 

 the high-livers of the cities. There is a constant 

 demand for them at Chicago, and good prices are 

 obtained when they first come in. 



