1 86 GAME-BIRDS AT HOME. 



dared not play the greenhorn by asking. Finally 

 he took pity on me and said : 



*' Hanged if I didn't sit down behind a bush 

 and pot 'em all in one spot, sometimes three or 

 four at a shot." 



I went to see the place. There was an open- 

 ing four or five feet wide, formed by an old low- 

 water road and cattle-paths. This was bare of 

 grass or cover, and ran through the strip of grass 

 along the lake in which the birds were so plenty. 

 Across this opening snipe were trotting in twos, 

 threes, and even fours, as well as singly, and the 

 feathers on the ground told the story. I believe 

 one could have shot snipe there all that afternoon 

 at about the same rate. 



Another most singular kind of shooting I once 

 had on this bird was in Mexico. Few parts of 

 the United States ever afford the right conditions 

 for it. Along a line of sloughs with very flat 

 margins the grass was nibbled very close by the 

 hungry cattle, it being winter, the dry time of 

 the year. Over it snipe wild as hawks were trot- 

 ting, but all out of range. At from sixty to a 

 hundred yards many of them would squat and 

 hide in what little cover the gray grass-stumps 



