258 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



If the soil is sour, or washed by mineral springs, the 

 worms the birds feed on will not be there, and, as the 

 snipe is a ravenous feeder, he will not go onto such 

 places, though they will come to good feeding-ground as 

 soon in the spring as the frost is out so that they can 

 reach their food, and on such grounds, and in good 

 weather, will most probably be found day after day. 

 Hence, if you do not find them to-day where yesterday 

 there were plenty of them, do not be discouraged, but try 

 other ground, and return to the old quarters on the 

 morrow. 



Every sportsman has his favorite game, but, though I 

 am fully cognizant of the delight of shooting other game, 

 the snipe, because of the eccentricity of his ways, is and 

 ever will be my favorite game bird. Next to him I rank 

 the woodcock. 



I have spent many happy days in the pursuit of snipe, 

 and feel to them a lasting indebtedness for that pleasure. 

 I have written of them as I have found them, relying 

 upon other authors as little as possible, and giving the 

 results of such experience and observation as unlimited 

 opportunities have favored me with. 



If anything I have written should be of any use to 

 some young brother of the trigger, or should call up in 

 the minds of old hands at snipe-shooting memories of 

 past, pleasant days with the long-bills, my work will not 

 have been in vain. Much that has been written of them 

 by writers like Forester, I could have reproduced here, 

 but the desire not to be tedious has kept my pen within 

 bounds, and had I written a volume on the subject, I do 

 not feel that I could have written more to the purpose. 



