SNIPE-SHOOTING. 239 



" The next visitor is the Woodcock, found, when the 

 Solitary Snipe is disappearing, along the skirts of the forest, 

 near pastures, where the birch, poplar, and mountain ash 

 grow in a thick undergrowth in brushwood. They make 

 but a short stay, if the cold increases rapidly, as it does in 

 some years. 



" A regular succession of night-frosts, that drives away 

 the Woodcock, brings in the Common Snipe, which makes 

 a short stay, and is succeeded by the Jack Snipe. Neither 

 of these birds comes in the same numbers as the Woodcock 

 and Solitary Snipe. The Jack Snipe remains until the 

 first fall of snow. 



" All these birds are found in the latter part of summer 

 in and near the grass-lands west of the Kola Hills, as 

 well as about Kola (lat. 68 N.), in the northern island of 

 Nova Zembla, and along the banks of the river Mesen 

 to the south of it." 



In Scandinavia, as said, some value is placed on the 

 Solitary Snipe, but the Common and the Jack Snipe, 

 from their diminutive size, and from their eatable quali- 

 ties not being duly appreciated, are but little sought 

 after, excepting for the sake of sport. A good many are, 

 however, killed to the pointer, especially in the south of 

 Sweden. 



Speaking generally, the Snipe-shooting in the Penin- 

 sula, owing to the wooded nature of the country, is far 

 from good ; but there are localities where, if a man holds 

 his gun straight, any number of these birds may be shot 

 in a day. Even the bogs near to Ronnum are not to 

 be despised ; and had it been an object with me, I 

 might readily have bagged 300 to 400 couple of Snipe 

 in the course of the season. But it was seldom that I 

 went in pui-suit of those birds, and only once with deadly 

 intent. On that occasion a friend and myself, in the 

 course of a few hoiirs, bagged thirty-four couple of Snipe, 



