86 BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 
supposed to fly ; and if such a storm occur at either 
of these periods, and be succeeded by a south-wester- 
ly wind, it will surely be followed by an abundance 
of the appropriate birds. 
During an easterly blow they will be seen passing 
by Point Judith in an almost unbroken line; and 
after it, they abound throughout the whole length 
of the coast, as though they had been carried to all 
parts of it at once. But if no such storm occur, 
the catching the flight is a mere chance ; and where 
the summer has been dry, the snipe will be scarce. 
If the meadows have been kept moist by continual 
showers, there will be a moderate supply of game 
the summer through; but if there has been a drought, 
the surface becomes too hard for the snails and in- 
sects to inhabit, or for the birds to penetrate ; a scar- 
city of food results, and there will be no flight what- 
ever. | 
Scattering birds, wandering away from their fel- 
lows and exhausted with hunger, delighted at be- 
holding their friends apparently feeding, will be 
killed perhaps in numbers sufficient to make now 
and then a decent bag; but what is known as the 
“ flicht””—when the great army moves its vast co- 
horts, division after division, regiment after regiment, 
company after company—will not take place. How 
they reach the south no one can accurately tell ; 
they either fly inland or out at sea high in the air, 
or late at night ; but their returning myriads in the 
spring following, prove that in some way they did 
reach their southern winter homes. 
