324 AMERICAJSr GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 



passed. Both parents are very careful of their brood, 

 and work diligently in providing them food. The young 

 are in prime condition about November, and so well able 

 to take care of themselves that the fowler has to use all 

 his art to bag them. Many persons think that snipe are 

 difficult to kill, but this is only true to a certain extent, 

 for if one will walk down wind, and not shoot rapidly, 

 but give the birds a start of twenty or thirty yards before 

 firing — if they rise within ten yards or so — he will find 

 that his bag at the end of the day will be much larger 

 than if he had taken snap shots, and that he may score 

 with both barrels, thus giving himself double snipes and 

 a duplicate pleasure. The cause of this is readily appa- 

 rent. When they fly about twenty or thirty yards, they 

 settle into a straight course, whereas they dart hither and 

 thither in the most eccentric manner previous to going 

 that distance. Side shots are better and surer than the 

 straight, especially if one is beating to the leeward. If a 

 person is shooting over dogs, he cannot well beat down 

 wind, as the animals must work to the windward or 

 across wind, if they are to be of much use besides acting 

 as retrievers. When the dogs point, it is advisable to 

 get to their windward before flushing the bird, as the 

 chances of grassing it are greater. Setters are better for 

 this work than pointers. If snipe are abundant, large 

 bags can be made in favorable weather, for it is nothing 

 unusual for a market-hunter to average fifty couples a 

 a day for a week or two, and sometimes more; but, should 

 the weather be unpropitious, few birds are harder to kill, 

 on account of their erratic habits, capricious character, 

 and manner of soaring high and flushing at long dis- 

 tances. When they first arrive from the South they are 

 wild and unsteady, and keep constantly changing their 

 haunts, as if no place suited them. They sometimes 

 travel in wisps numbering twenty or more, then decrease 

 to *' walks " of four or five. It is little use trying to pur- 



