324 



WOODCOCKS AND SNIPES. 



associating together, as if they disliked a lonely, solitary life. 

 ]S T ot so the Woodcock and the Snipe; for they, except at 

 the breeding season, seem to shun not only other birds, but 

 even their own species. It may be said that this is incorrect, 

 because often in the same woods, or favourite marshy haunts, 

 they may be occasionally put up in considerable numbers ; but 

 in these cases it should be remembered, that if many are found, 

 the number depends not upon any social feeling, but the 

 attraction of their common food ; a large proportion of their 

 lives being passed alone in the solitude of a marsh or the 

 shaded retirement of a wood. If undisturbed, and in some 

 cases even although disturbed, there will the Woodcock or 

 the Snipe remain, till called away by that instinctive faculty 

 which compels them to visit regions far distant, and still more 

 solitary ; where, without fear of intrusion, they may rear their 

 young broods. Every sportsman is well aware of the attach- 

 ment evinced by these 

 birds for some favoured 

 spot. Upon the same 

 patch of rushy, marshy 

 ground, the same Jack- 

 Snipe may be found, day 

 after day, in spite of the 

 annoyance to which it is 

 often exposed from an in- 

 different marksman : up 

 rises the little bird from 

 its rushy covert, turning 

 ™e Snipe, and winding swiftly 



through the air, and thus escaping charge after charge of shot, 

 which only seems to add vigour to its wings ; and after a wide 

 whirl or two, down it starts again, often within a few yards of 

 the seat of danger. 



The difficulty of hitting this active little bird is indeed 80 

 proverbial, that we can readily believe a story told of a gentle- 

 man — a very bad shot — who having at length succeeded in 

 killing a Jack-Snipe, deeply lamented the loss of a bird which, 

 as he was always sure of finding it in the same place, had 



