CHAPTER XIV. 



SNIPE. 



Abundance in the West and South — Lie well to dogs in fine weather- 

 Migrations — Haunts and liabits of Wilson's snipe — Side shots- 

 Large bags — Best time to shoot at a snipe. 



Snipe are exceedingly abundant in the West in spring 

 and autumn, and in the Southwest in winter, being 

 most numerous in the tier of States bordering the Missis- 

 sippi and Missouri Rivers, the Gulf Stream, and the Pa* 

 cific Ocean. It is nothing unusual lor a man to bag from 

 fifty to seventy couples a day in some of these regions, 

 for they become so tame and fat in places where food is 

 abundant and enemies are scarce, that they pay little or 

 no attention to a person, and fly so close to him when 

 they rise that he may bag the majority. I have heard of 

 a sportsman who killed sixty without making a miss, and 

 of another who grassed ninety-one in a hundred shots. 

 This sti^tement may give an idea of their numbers and 

 fearlessness when they are not constantly assailed by 

 storms of leaden hail. Snipe lie well to dogs in fine weather, 

 and are sometimes so lazy that they cannot be flushed 

 until they are almost kicked out of their places of con- 

 cealment. They are very wild in blustry weather, and 

 flush long before a person is within shooting distance. 

 Some persons prefer to shoot without a dog in such 

 weather, as they say the chances of getting shots are bet- 

 ter. They always beat down wind, as the birds must 

 rise against the wind to get on the wing, owing to the 

 length and closeness of the under alar feathers. This 

 forces them to fly to the right or left of the sportsman, 

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