Habits and Habitat of Snipe. 1 8 1 



breath of winter is sufficient to denude entirely 

 of the stock of birds which had rendered 

 the locality a snipe-shooter's paradise so long 

 as the weather remained open. Especially 

 is this the case along the little-known tracts 

 of snipe-ground that fringe the seaboard of 

 Wales and the west of England, — tracts which 

 in early winter do not yield in prolificness, 

 mile for mile, to the endless bogs of the 

 Emerald Isle itself The most arctic winters 

 within the memory of man have not been able 

 to bind these springs and watercourses in the 

 grip of ice. Were this the case, the sudden 

 evacuation of the snipe might be considered as 

 the result of instinct warning the birds to flee 

 from even the possibility of starvation. But 

 I am unwilling to believe that any wild birds 

 can be affected by the premonition of such a 

 groundless danger. The fact remains, how- 

 ever, that in places such as I describe the 

 sportsman may, during hard weather, wander 

 all day along the soft margins of rivers and 

 springs, protected by what was in happier 

 times excellent cover, and yet never spring 



