Habits and Habitat of Snipe. 1 7 1 



the two extremes mentioned above sport 

 may be had. A glance out of window in 

 the mornincT should never be allowed to 

 decide the day's plans. There is only one 

 really bad time for walking after snipe, and 

 that is during the first few days of a white 

 frost. They are then, in my experience, 

 always wild and collected in wisps. Shooting 

 had better be postponed until the warm moist 

 weather which invariably follows that Christ- 

 mas-card-looking appearance caused by what 

 Colonel Hawker called *' atmospheric arsenic." 

 Neither, unless you are pushed for time, is 

 it advisable to sally forth during heavy rain. 

 Apart from the personal discomfort, the snipe 

 will very likely be uneasy, your dogs will be 

 miserable, and if you do manage to make a 

 bag the game will be wet, and draggled, and 

 unfit to send away to your friends. There 

 is nothing more hideous than a bundle of 

 drenched snipe. 



Equally with climatic conditions does the 

 nature of the ground composing your beat 

 affect the disposition of the birds. Generally 



