SNIPE SHOOTING 93 



every respect save for the trifling distinction that the Wilson 

 (American) snipe rejoices in sixteen tail feathers while the English 

 i^ strictly limited to the number of fourteen. 



Another slight distinction lies in the fact that the Wilson snipe, 

 frequently while breeding, and at other times occasionally, will 

 perch on the branch of a tree, a dead stump, or on a rail fence. This 

 habit the European snipe has never acquired. In the course of 

 opportunities of observation extending over a score of years I have 

 seen the Wilson snipe alighting thus in the shooting season only on 

 three several occasions, twice on the upper pole of the Canadian 

 famous ' snake ' fence, and once on the branches of a black spruce. 

 This shade of difference therefore appears somewhat unsubstantial. 



The English snipe, averaging upwards of four ounces, is jx-rhaps 

 an ounce heavier than his American cousin. Yet one occasionally 

 meets a flight of Wilson snipe, doubtless hailing from some peculiarly 

 rich dyke lands, which run from five to six ounces apiece. 



The dietary of the Wilson snipe ranges from earthworms to 

 larvae of ants and beetles, and even to newts. During an autumn 

 of exceptional drought I once disturbed a large number of both cock 

 and snipe feeding in the wet depressions of the bed of a pond nearly 

 dried up completely, which held no end of caddis larvae and wriggling 

 masses of tadpoles. The birds resorted hither evening after evening, 

 regaling themselves on the rich repast until the supply finally became 

 entirely exhausted. 



The bill of the snipe is an extraordinary weapon, flexible only 

 under very strong pressure, yet capable of entering fairly stiff soil. 

 It is easy to see how many country folk, struck by the sight of these 

 birds probing in muddy places, might hastily conclude that they, 

 as well as their blood relations the woodcock, got their living by 

 suction. 



That Byron gave credence to this popular error is evident from 

 his'well-known lines : 



For man is a carnivorous production. 



And must have meals, at least one meal a day. 

 He cannot live like woodcocks upon suction. 



But then the poet was confessedly weak in ornithology, as he readily 

 acknowledged, when in deference to the views of an eminent natural- 

 ist he altered his fine line on the fall of Napoleon at Waterloo from 

 ' Then tore with bloody beak the fatal plain ', to ' Then tore with 

 bloody talon the rent plain '. This he claimed if better ornithology, 

 was also better poetry. 



That snipe are very sharp of hearing I can verify from my own 

 experience. A fringe of alder coppice at the edge of a snipe marsh 



