Habits and Habitat of Snipe, 1 53 



flights newly landed from abroad. They 

 must rather be the results of a local migra- 

 tion, possibly from distant points of these 

 Islands, possibly from the next parish, from 

 whence they have been driven by failure 

 of the food-supply, overcrowding, persecution, 

 perhaps caprice, or any other conceivable 

 reason. Not having had time to make a 

 tour of exploration for the best haunts the 

 strange district affords, the snipe are merely 

 resting after their flight, and you had better 

 attack them instanter, for they will speedily 

 be gone. Birds found in this intermittent 

 fashion in a certain bit of marsh will either 

 He as close as stones, or rise in wisps at 

 half a mile. There will be nothing of what 

 artists call a middle distance. The former 

 in a snipe invariably points to one of two 

 conditions — It is either tired after a journey, 

 or drowsing after a heavy meal ; the latter 

 to uneasiness, caused by something more 

 than an empty stomach. 



To throw light on these questions, I have 

 many times made nightly visits to such fickle 



