THE SNIPE AND SNIPE-SHOOTING. 135 



the case. The snipe stay much longer in the 

 spring in the Western States than they do in the 

 fall, and they distribute themselves more over the 

 face of the country. In the autumn migration 

 they keep more to the lines of the great rivers, 

 and stay but a short time. One reason, no doubt, 

 is that in the spring there is much more wet 

 ground, such as suits the snipe. In the fall many 

 places in which the birds lie thick in April are 

 quite dry, and no longer suitable as feeding- 

 places. The snipe likes wet places even more 

 than the woodcock. His favorite resorts are wet 

 bogs, plashy places in grassy meadows, the rich, 

 moist ground of river-bottoms, and the margins 

 of grassy sloughs and bayous 



" By the rushy, fringed bank, 

 Where grow the willow and the ozier dank ! " 



The best snipe-shooting with us is in the spring 

 of the year, though very good sport may be had 

 in the fall. In the spring I have sometimes 

 killed from twenty-five to fifty couple a day for 

 many days together. When the birds first come, 

 they are poor and wild, and the shooting is difficult ; 

 but a little time spent upon the rich bottom-land, 

 which swarms with worms and other food, puts them 



