52 WING-SHOOTING. 



Haunts. — When snipe arrive in the spring, they may 

 be found upon marshy grounds, wet patches of grassy 

 lands, on the borders of streams, and in willow thickets, 

 when they are thin and wild, and their flights are long 

 and rapid : but when the weather becomes warm they lie 

 quite hard, and frequently alight, on being flushed, within 

 a hundred yards. The flight of snipe being often irregu- 

 lar and confused, and at the same time rapid, they give all 

 sorts of shots, so that the sportsman who makes a good 

 bag after a hard day's tramp, will, in all probability, come 

 to the conclusion that he has made^ upon this bird all the 

 shots that may be afibrded by all of our game birds. 



On uplands, that is, on farming lands, independent of 

 extensive marshes, we seldom find snipe very numerous ; 

 here they are found in early spring, or if the season be 

 backward, in willow thickets, and woodcock coverts ; later 

 on, when the weather becomes warm, upon open meadows, 

 and in shallow swales traversing meadows. 



When abundant, many advocate the plan of walking 

 them up without the assistance of a dog, assigning as a 

 reason that so few dogs are successful snipe-hunters — be- 

 ing too fast when on game, the birds so easily flushed, and 

 the flights so long, that there is no certainty of approach- 

 ing within gun-shot a second time. As a companion, when 



