Habits and Habitat of Snipe. 1 89 



the opposite shore. Curiously enough, the 

 duck and teal which always lurked around the 

 pool did not seem half so intolerant of the 

 crack of Schultze as the snipe, for whenever 

 I took the trouble to make the complete 

 circuit, it was seldom that one or two were 

 not added to the bag from the very ground 

 which nervous little Gallinago had thought it 

 best to evacuate long before. 



I know several places where the wet rushy 

 meadows which form most of the shooting- 

 ground are nearly always turned into these 

 snipe-haunted archipelagos late in the season ; 

 and precious irritating localities they are, for 

 the more snipe they hold the wilder will the 

 birds be, and the more necessary will it be 

 to flush them, if you do not wish to leave 

 half the stock on your beat unshot at. From 

 what I have written the flushing business 

 may seem an easy thing enough, if a single 

 shot be sufficient to put up every bird. But 

 the worst of it is, that you can never be 

 certain that every bird is up. Many a time 

 will you find that the best sport of the day 



M 



