BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 215 



juicy delicacy to the English snipe. Whether the 

 same change is noticeable in the larger varieties, I 

 cannot say of my own knowledge. 



The gunners have an ingenious way of stringing 

 them in bunches of a half dozen each, on the longest 

 feathers taken from their wings, a pair of these being 

 tied together by the feather ends, and the quillpoints 

 thrust through the nostrils of the birds. It is desi- 

 rable to put them up in small bunches, as under the 

 warm temperature of summer they will, unless every 

 precaution is exercised, soon become tainted. To 

 prevent this, the entrails should also be carefully 

 removed without disturbing the plumage ; and a 

 little salt, or, as many persons recommend, coffee, 

 rubbed inside, and they should be at all times care- 

 fully protected from the sun. Their sedgy flavor 

 grows stronger with every day they are kept ; and 

 being extremely oily, the least taint renders them, 

 together with all the wild inhabitants of the coast, 

 unfit for food. 



Bay-snipe are essentially migratory, rarely stop- 

 ping on our shores to build their nests and rear their 

 young ; during the spring months they pass to or 

 beyond the coast of Labrador, and attend to the 

 duties of maternity in the vast levels and swamps 

 that surround Hudson's Bay, and constitute a large 

 portion of the northern part of British North Ame- 

 rica. In my ramblings through the Provinces, I was 

 frequently informed that they abounded during the 

 latter part of summer on the marshes near the Bay 

 Chaleur in New Brunswick. This must evidently 



