COMMON SNIPE. 319 
or the sedgy margins of pit holes and ditches, as 
well as in such marshes as are then sufficiently moist. 
They have also a decided preference for such as have 
been frequented by cattle during the summer months, 
their dung affording much insect food. The low lands 
near the salt marshes, on the coast, also afford good 
sport at times when the snipes are first over, and in 
such localities, at Blakeney, Mr. Dowell has known 
as many as twelve couples killed to one gun in a day. 
These, however, soon pass on to the southward to 
be succeeded by others throughout September, but 
it is seldom that any number are bagged until the 
main body of the migratory snipes disperse themselves 
over the broads and marshes in October and November. 
As Mr. Lubbock remarks, “their abundance and their 
stay are regulated in great measure by the wind and 
the mildness or severity of the weather. The best 
seasons for snipe-shooting are those in which moderate 
easterly or north-easterly gales occur at intervals during 
September, October, and November. Should too long 
an interval occur without such wind, the snipes, when 
it comes, pour in upon us in great numbers, but gener- 
ally depart again in a few days.” Usually, as far as 
my experience goes, the latter month is the most 
favourable, and on the broads, especially, they are then 
more accessible in boats,* the reeds having been cut, or 
at first seldom find them near water, almost invariably in dry 
situations, in pasture land amongst the long grass, or on stubbles.” 
* At such times, as Yarrell, in the article before mentioned, 
states from his experience of the broads, ‘‘ they rest on beds of 
watercresses and the broken remains of Scirpus lacustris (which 
had previously been cut by the marshmen, under the name of 
bolders, for chair bottoms); and the Typha latifolia (vulgo 
gladdon), and Sparganium ramosum (vulgo black-weed), which 
are used by coopers to put between the staves of casks; on the 
floating remains of these and other aquatic plants they lie in great 
numbers.” 
