OF NEW ENGLAND. 409 



completed their zigzags and begin their steady flight. The 

 beginner, deej^ly impressed by these statements, his mind 

 filled with the idea that the flight of the Snipe is much like 

 that of a tortuous lightning flash through a cloud, sets out, 

 and, adopting one or the otlier of these absurd rules, is sure to 

 miss. Inasmuch as tlie Snipe, five times out of six, in most 

 weather does not spring at all, to fire at the height of the first 

 spring means to the beginner to fire as soon as he can, that is 

 as much as jDossible before he gets his aim. On the other hand, 

 to wait until the bird is done with zigzagging necessitates 

 waiting until he has begun zigzagging, and, as he generally does 

 not zigzag at all, this involves waiting some time. From the 

 expression, " zigzag flight," would not the natural impression 

 be that the bird kept darting rapidly with sharp, quick, short 

 turns from side to side? That such is the Snipe's usual flight 

 is certainly not true, though it is undoubtedly often rapid and 

 sometimes eccentric. The author's experience is for these 

 days of rapid travel limited, but after shooting snipe at dif- 

 ferent seasons in the British Provinces, in Maine, Massachu- 

 setts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and North 

 Carolina, he ventures to assert that they almost never "zigzag" 

 in their flight. 



Unless there is a high wind, or the birds have been very much 

 persecuted, they fly off, four times out of five, iliore or less 

 rapidly in a direct line, and near the ground. On a bright, 

 warm, quiet day, with a gentle breeze, they afford the sports- 

 man more easy shots in succession than any other game-bird 

 of New England, and, indeed, frequently flutter off so indo- 

 lently that to shoot them is a mere bagatelle even for the most 

 indifferent shot. Snipe usually start up the wind, and, if the 

 wind is high, often dart away fifteen or twenty yards, gradually 

 ascending, and then either fall away gradually before the wind 

 till they cross it with a circumlinear flight, or, by throwing up 

 one wing, make a sharp angle in the direction of their motion. 

 But the abrupt change of direction is not common, and a rapid 

 repetition of it rare. Sometimes, again, they go off up wind, 

 bearing first more strongly on one wing than on the other, thus 



