SNIPE SHOOTING 327 
quickly, flying high out of range, with its bill extended 
straight ahead. It can pitch to the ground from its 
highest flight, darting downward with stiffened wings 
and alighting with the greatest ease. 
In the course of migration the birds stop in favorite 
places where food is abundant, and oftentimes there 
remain till the weather becomes unpleasant. As a 
rule, they arrive in the South in a lean condition. 
When lean they are also wilder, regardless of weather 
conditions. 
Shooting then, if limited to times when they are 
wild, is shooting in its most difficult phases. But as 
mentioned before, such difficulties of snipe shooting are 
not the average of snipe shooting. 
Snipe shooting as to possible quantity varies widely, 
one locality with another. One locality may contain 
but a few snipe to reward the shooter’s efforts, while 
in other nearby localities they may fairly swarm, as 
in Louisiana and Texas in the fall and spring months, 
when the birds are migrating. In those States they 
generally remain several weeks to enjoy the food abun- 
dance. Some scattered ones in the South may be 
found all through the winter. The heavy rains of fall 
and spring, frequently a downpour of days in the far 
South, soften the fat alluvial prairie lands, thereby 
fitting hundreds of square miles for the snipe’s habitat. 
In particularly favorable sections of the prairie, cotton, 
corn and sugar fields, they may at times be found in 
thousands. A dog in such shooting is an encumbrance, 
except to act as a retriever. There is no woodcraft 
