316 Bartram's Sandpiper — Upland Plover 



Some of the finest sport it has been my lot 

 to enjoy with this bird was upon those rare 

 days when the plover of a large area appeared 

 to be posted singly and many yards apart. I 

 have seen a bit of prairie about a mile square, 

 dotted all over with motionless and observant 

 birds, and these so evenly distributed that they 

 might have posed for so many decoys. Under 

 such conditions, it occasionally happens that a 

 man on foot can have some very pretty shoot- 

 ing. But there is no such thing as a very 

 close approach. The average " rise " probably 

 would be about thirty-five yards, at which dis- 

 tance only a quick man, aided by a hard-shoot- 

 ing gun, can hope to score at all uniformly. 

 Upon such a day, too, the great majority of 

 chances will be quartering shots, for the birds 

 seem to prefer to keep their enemy plainly in 

 view. This, of course, means that the gun must 

 be well ahead of the mark and kept at an even 

 swing. In fact, the sport bears no slight resem- 

 blance to live bird shooting at the traps. The 

 plover gets away smartly and is soon at top speed, 

 and "the top speed of this bird is no poor imitation 

 of fast flying. But, unfortunately, such days are 

 all too few, the general rule being that these scat- 

 tered birds flush almost beyond range and fly to 

 a considerable distance before pitching. This 

 necessitates a deal of walking, and encourages 



