Habits and Habitat of Snipe, 1 59 



sportsman will often confess that Gallinago 

 at any rate often most thoroughly belles 

 his appearance. There are few birds more 

 wary, and none quicker to take advantage 

 of any assistance to escape offered by sur- 

 roundings : a projection from a bush, the 

 lip of a boulder, a little pillar of reed 

 stems, it is miraculous how he perceives 

 and uses their shelter when whizzing along 

 in full career, turning behind them, perhaps 

 at right angles, with more certainty at forty 

 miles an hour than you could do at four. 

 In his power of taking or leaving cover he 

 is the Boer of bird-dom ! 



One idiosyncrasy, however, he has which 

 will often give you a second chance at him : 

 he can see no danger in a motionless object. 

 This failing seems common to nearly all 

 wild creatures. Only keep still and the 

 most timid of fauna will often go on uncon- 

 cernedly with any business they have in 

 hand, and delightful business it is to wit- 

 ness. When waiting for the duck to flight 

 at dusk or dawn, I have often had even 



