828 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
On one occasion at Wheatacre Burgh, near Haddiscoe, 
where the birds kept on in continuous flights across the 
country, as larks are seen to do in southern counties, 
taking one particular course, and thus passing on for 
several hours. At another time, some fifteen years ago, 
with snow on the ground, during a similar migratory 
movement of this species, near Buckenham Horse-shoes, 
the birds, in passing over a fence near a gateway, flew 
so low that some were even knocked down with sticks. 
He has also occasionally found them very plentiful on 
the ploughed fields, and has killed as many as five and 
a half couples in such localities. 
The partiality for some particular spot is as marked 
in the snipe as the woodcock, and most snipe-shooters 
can recall some pit-hole, drain, or spring head, where 
invariably as the season came round a snipe (and more 
particularly a jack), could be found. If the soil is but 
suitable to their habits, any moist situation contents 
them, and I remember some years back a little swamp 
close to a residence at Hardingham, where snipes were 
always found in autumn. So confined was the space 
that, at the first shot, the “whole” snipes would rise in a 
“wisp,” and two or three jacks would be flushed by close 
walking. If revisited again in an hour or two they 
were sure to have returned to the same spot, and thus 
in two or three visits as many couples might be bagged 
in the day; but drainage, has, I believe, since accom- 
plished what constant shooting failed to effect, and 
banished them for ever. 
Some of my readers will probably remember that in 
1858-59 a discussion took place in the columns of the 
“Field” on the question of snipes perching at times on 
trees or other elevations; and, in spite of the authorities 
then cited to the contrary by the naturalist editor of 
that journal, I must still maintain that such is the case, 
and in support of my assertion could produce many 
