WITH THE POINTEK. 229 



this is the most amusing. They are very easy to shoot, 

 and, where preserved, fifty or sixty, or even more, may 

 he kiUed in a day." 



" I myself," writes Professor Rasch to me, with 

 reference to Norway, " never killed more than forty-two 

 Solitary Snipes in any one day; and the late Colonel 

 Helgesen shot sixty-one on the same day ; hut M. Isaksen 

 is reported to have killed upwards of seventy in the same 

 space of time. These Jagter," the Professor continues, 

 " were formerly conducted on some flat and low islands 

 in the river Glommeu, near to where it falls into the lake 

 Oieren, but the peasant proprietors themselves have now 

 learnt to slioot flying, and are well paid for their booty, 

 and no one at the present day is, therefore, allowed to 

 sport thereabouts." 



It is on record, moreover, that in the autumn of 1847, 

 when the Solitary Snipes were unusually numerous, five 

 hundred of these birds were shot in the Kungs-diig, or 

 E/oyal meadow, near Upsala. 



My own doings with the Solitary Snipe have been very 

 unimportant. Altogether, it is true, I have shot a good 

 many of those birds, but never any considerable number 

 on any one occasion. The best shooting I ever had was 

 one afternoon, near the town of Gothenburg, where on 

 a small extent of marshy land, I bagged ten and a half 

 couple. I then saw only a very few, probably not more 

 than five or six, besides those shot. But, comparatively 

 scarce as they were, yet had the day been before me, and 

 a sufficiency of country, there is no doubt I might readily 

 have doubled or trebled the number stated. 



Many Solitary Snipes are taken in the Stick-Nat^ 

 spoken of at page 61 of this volume. "That used for 

 the capture of these birds is," Dr. Soderljerg informs us, 

 "from 30 to 40 feet in length, 10 to 12 inches in depth, 

 with meshes about one inch square. Sometimes it is 



