98 NATUBAL HISTOET SKETCHES. 



localities where there is good feefKng-groitnd, till they 

 reach the coast, where all that are spared remain 

 until they leave; and I could always make sure of 

 a couple or two in the honeysuckle or tea-tree scrub 

 along the beach, when I could find them nowhere else. 

 The habits of the Australian snipe are very puzzling, 

 and a man who is not used to snipe-shooting here may 

 beat acre after acre of what we should consider in 

 the fen capital snipe-ground, without springing a bird, 

 and perhaps pass over the very places where the snipe 

 do lie. Fancy an old fenman trying for a snipe among 

 ferns and heather on a dry sandy rise, or in thick honey- 

 suckle scrub ; yet these are the very places to look for 

 the Australian snipe : in the summer and in the heat of 

 the day you will find them here in large wisps, and no- 

 where else. In the early part of the season a man may, 

 however, beat for them in much the same places as he 

 would at home; and as the season advances, they lie much 

 under the shelter of any large timber near the swamps, 

 and in patches of tea-tree which skirt the creeks and 

 wet ground. They never lie far in, and an old dog who 

 knows his business will potter steadily along a yard or 

 so in the tea-tree, and tumble out the snipe as fast as 

 ever you can load and fire. In the very heat of summer 

 they get much into the honeysuckle scrub, but always 

 somewhere near their feeding-grounds ; and here it is 

 snap-shooting with a vengeance ; for when they rise they 

 are only seen for an instant. The Australian snipe in 

 the open is not nearly so difficult to kill as the snipe at 



