256 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



ground is at all wet, you may know the birds are near at 

 hand, or have just left. On dry spots, the droppings 

 remain plain to the sight for days, but on wet ground 

 speedily lose color, and are absorbed by the soil. 



I have noted elsewhere that it is best to look for the 

 game on bright, warm days, when little wind is blowing. 

 They are loath to rise at such times, but on raw, cold, 

 windy days they will be wild and uneasy. 



I have before me an excellent little chapter on snipe 

 as they are found in the Western States, from which I 

 quote. Unfortunately, I do not know who the writer is, 

 so can not give him credit, as I would like to: 



' ' Snipe are as eccentric in their habits as when on the 

 wing. At times, in the spring, they come early and tarry 

 late, affording most excellent sport throughout the 

 season. Again, they feed on the open marshes mostly 

 by night, and with the earliest dawn hie away into the 

 inaccessible center of the slough, or among the low brush- 

 wood growing up in or close by the marsh, or even upon 

 the near uplands, where they rise always far out of range. 

 A peculiarity of good snipe-ground is its seeming inex- 

 haustibility. On a well-stocked snipe-ground, you raise 

 possibly 100 birds to-day, and kill off a couple of 

 dozen. To-morrow, there seem about as many, and your 

 success corresponds with that of yesterday; so through a 

 whole week, perhaps, with apparently no marked addi- 

 tion or subtraction from the quantity of game when you 

 desist." 



Always hunt snipe with the wind on your back, as 

 they seem to require the resistance of the wind to enable 

 them to rise quickly. By working in this way, the birds 

 lie closer, and you get shots nearer at hand, for, as they 

 spring up in the face of the wind, they will present to you 

 side-quartering shots. They are not a hard bird to kill, 

 as one or two pellets of No. 8 or 9 shot will stop them. As 



