312 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
of February.* If detained for some days by contrary 
winds, there is usually good sport at this time of year, 
although the main body soon pass on again to their 
northern homes; but the custom which, Iam sorry to 
say, very generally prevails of shooting snipe even as late 
as the first and second week in April, cannot be too 
strongly deprecated, inasmuch as the females are then 
either heavy with egg or actually engaged in incuba- 
tion; whilst many that would remain to breed in our 
marshes are thus slaughtered or driven out of the 
county. Surely the proprietors of our local snipe- 
erounds, who have the power of preserving in their 
own hands must, on reflection, see the fallacy of thus 
killing the old birds in spring, when, if allowed quietly 
to establish themselves for the summer, their progeny 
would afford more certain sport in the course of the 
following autumn. Before long, it is to be hoped, an 
act may be passed to preserve all this class of birds 
in the breeding season, and having seen the effect 
during the last few years of the protective system, 
both at Hoveton and Surlingham, I have no doubt as 
to a favourable result. On the latter broad, during the 
first week of August, 1865, an unusual number having 
remained to breed, I flushed between thirty and forty 
couples on one small marsh. ‘Three, which I shot, 
proved to be young birds of the year in fair condition, 
and quick on the wing, but up to that time, the marsh- 
man assured me, no foreign flights had made their 
* Yarrell states that their return in the month of February 
or March, is regulated by the same atmospheric influences that 
cause certain wild flowers to bloom earlier or later in different 
seasons, and adds, “by attending to these coincidences a Norfolk 
sportsman will rarely be disappointed in his expectations of amuse- 
ment at this time of year.” The usual term of re-migration he 
considers to be between the 14th of March and the end of that 
month. 
