COMMON SNIPE. $21 
landed on one marsh, of no great extent, than the snipes 
rose on all sides, not in a body but two or three at a 
time. If we walked on too quickly they rose behind 
us; if the dog fetched one he sprang several more, so 
reluctant did they seem to take wing at all, and their 
numbers were so extraordinary and so unlooked for, 
that the eye became altogether confused, and it was 
difficult to determine which to shoot at first.* In the 
excitement of this novel scene, I well remember missing 
five shots in succession with my first barrel, and killing 
them all with the second; and though in a very short 
time we had secured twelve or fourteen couples, had I 
been as good a snipe shot as my companion, and day- 
light had lasted, we might easily have bagged eighteen 
or twenty couples. 
It has been said that snipes are not in condition 
till after the first frost, and certainly some of the 
weightiest birds I ever handled have been killed during 
the most severe weather. This however, arises from 
the fact that although a severe frost compels the main 
body to seek a milder climate,t yet a good many will 
betake themselves at such times to the upland springs 
or sedgy banks of meadow drains and rivulets, and in 
these localities, even with a deep snow on the ground, 
several couples may sometimes be met with, both common 
and jack snipes, and always, under such circumstances, 
in high condition. In January, 1861, and again in 
the winter of 1866-67, during the extraordinarily sharp 
weather, which at that time visited us for many weeks, 
when nearly all the denizens of the broads had been 
* A somewhat similar occurrence is narrated in Thompson’s 
“ Birds of Ireland” (vol. ii,, p. 262.) 
+ It is probable that at these times the snipes take a westerly 
as well as southerly direction, which would account for the unusual 
numbers met with by Mr. Harry Blake Knox, in the county 
Dublin, in January, 1867. See “ Zoologist,” 1868 (p. 1192). 
Papal 
