Snipe, 41 



the future. During a long campaign in 

 which I once took part, it used to be 

 amusing to notice what vast amounts of food 

 the soldiers would stow away at their infre- 

 quent meals, far more than sufficient to 

 appease the hunger of the moment, because, 

 as they said, "you never knew when you 

 were going to get any more ! " I believe it 

 to be the same with the snipe, whose fore- 

 knowledge of future climatic conditions must 

 be, from his very migratory habits, an in- 

 stinct. Like the provident soldier, he 

 '' stokes " as hard as he can before the frost 

 actually descends upon him, firstly in his 

 ordinary haunts, next at the springs which 

 remain open when the colder ground is 

 frost-bound. Thus he waxes fat, and primed 

 with blubber, like the gorged Esquimau, to 

 withstand two or three days of privation, 

 astonishes the sportsman by his portliness 

 in a time of scarcity of food. But '' worm- 

 eries " around the springs are not inexhaust- 

 ible ; indeed they must be very quickly 

 depleted, judging from the multitudinous 



