158 A Book of the Snipe, 



to regard the departing bird as, if not 

 exactly lost, yet gone most decidedly before. 

 But this " I know exactly where I am 

 going " deportment is the hollowest of 

 frauds. Keep your eyes on the receding 

 speck, and before it has gone many yards 

 you will see symptoms of hesitation. First 

 a dart to the left, then to the rio^ht ; no ! 

 perhaps it would be safer to keep straight 

 on ; or how would it be to emulate the 

 bank rate, and get as high as possible in 

 the shortest time ! So up he soars, like a 

 brown, blown leaf, mastering the wind with 

 infinite grace of movement, as if ascending 

 to the heavens by an invisible spiral stair- 

 case, only to flit aimlessly about high over- 

 head, screaming intermittently, making finally 

 an arrowy head-foremost plunge downwards, 

 perhaps to a spot within fifty yards of that 

 from which he rose. Yet it must not be 

 inferred that our snipe is a fool. Milne 

 Edwards, and I believe Michelet, profess 

 to seeing stupidity stamped on the features 

 of all the Scolopacidae ; but the baffled 



