THE SNIPE AND SNIPE-SHOOTING. 147 



rivers, and perhaps many of them keep more to 

 the eastward in their southern migration than they 

 do in coming north. I am inclined to think that 

 this last must be the case, for the birds are not 

 anything like as numerous in the fall, when the 

 broods come, as they were in the spring, when 

 the snipe went north to breed. The best fall 

 snipe-shooting with us is along the bottoms of 

 the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, and about the 

 marshes of the great Winnebago Swamp. Here 

 the sportsman may have good shooting until late 

 in the fall I may say, in some seasons, until the 

 beginning of winter, for the snipe do not leave 

 altogether until the ground is frozen. When that 

 happens, they go southwards. In Illinois there is 

 some marshy ground which the snipe do not like. 

 Most of the land in that State, being rich loam 

 or vegetable alluvial, suits them well ; but in some 

 places there is sand or gravel as well as much 

 moisture, and neither of these does the snipe seem 

 to like. I suppose the favorite food in these 

 soils is scarce, and in all probability the birds do 

 not like to bore in gritty ground. A few may 

 be found scattered in wet places on such soils, 

 but at the same time they lie in thousands along 

 the loamy bottoms and in the marshes. In these 



