WILSON'S SNIPE. 191 



haps also he doesn't, for he has of late learned 

 much about improvements in guns. 



Here, too, he is often found on spots of wet 

 ground so small that in the East it would be 

 quite absurd to look for snipe of any kind. 

 Where in some little spring run the watercress 

 darkens the bubbling water with its rank green, 

 and the wild celery, sprawling over the edges, 

 makes the air fragrant with its rich odor, this 

 little roaming beauty may rise when you least 

 expect it. Where on the big plain the rising of 

 some subterranean water has made a little wet 

 spot of a few yards square, the only moisture 

 perhaps in miles, there, among the few tules that 

 rear their arrowy shafts of green, he may be often 

 found ; and even thousands of feet above the sea 

 where a green meadow is sunk into the moun- 

 tain's back, or a spring bog shines near its crest, 

 there, too, this little darling is often found at 

 home. 



