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BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 85 
but more time and patience are required to learn the 
use of this invention than of the lips. It will be far 
better for the sportsman who intends to pursue this 
sport, to practise with the organs that nature has 
given him, however much time or perseverance may 
be necessary, and then there will be no danger of 
leaving his whistle at home. 
As before remarked, the great drawback to the 
sport of shooting bay-snipe is its uncertainty ; if the 
flight has not come on, or a westerly wind has driven 
the birds to sea, or a heavy north-easter carries them 
with it high in air and prevents their stopping— 
there will be no shooting ; and the most experienced 
hand will often receive the comforting assurance 
which is always bestowed upon the inexperienced, 
that if he had only come two weeks sooner, or de- 
ferred his visit two weeks longer, he would have 
been sure of fine sport. There are nevertheless cer- 
tain general rules that furnish a tolerable criterion ; 
and laying aside the spring shooting, which occurs 
in May, and is extremely uncertain, the main flight 
of small birds—such as dowitchers and yellow-legs— 
commences about the tenth of July, and of large 
birds about the fifteenth of August. Each lasts about 
two weeks. 
The flight of large birds usually terminates with a 
short flight of yellow-legs, and is followed by the 
plover, which are succeeded by the kriekers. An 
easterly storm generally brings the birds, either by 
bearing them from their northern homes, or by fore- 
ing them in from the sea, where the main body is 
