184 A Book of the Snipe. 



servant enough to be able to give a trust- 

 worthy report of the abundance or the reverse 

 of any particular species in their locality. 

 They are, besides, almost to a man imbued 

 with the idea to start with that hard weather 

 means hosts of game. How often after a bad 

 day's snipe- shooting have I heard the man 

 carrying my cartridge - bag administer the 

 stereotyped consolation, " Ah, sir, you should 

 be here in hard weather ! " when I knew full 

 well that in that place during a frost twice 

 the amount of walking would not have pro- 

 duced even half the scanty day's bag. On 

 the bucolic mind unwonted abundance of 

 many sorts of wildfowl produces the impres- 

 sion of abundance of all, and the presence 

 of snipe is taken for granted amongst the 

 companies of duck and plover which the 

 winter weather has forced to congregate 

 on favourable spots from their usual widely 

 scattered haunts. Even in places to which 

 snipe do resort in a frost, they are uneasy 

 and fearful, and only a small percentage of 

 those seen will be bagged. 



