OF NEW ENGLAND. 411 



they may usually be marked down with accuracy, as they throw 

 up their wings to alight, and they should then, as always, be 

 approached down wind, no matter how great a detour is neces- 

 sary. By a study of their habits the sportsman will soon find 

 upon what days and in what places they may be most easily 

 and successfully shot. More may generally be killed by a vigor- 

 ous walker without a dog than with one, if one prefers birds to 

 pleasure. As to the shooting, as in all shooting on the wing, 

 you cannot shoot too quickly or too deliberately ; when to fire 

 quickly and when deliberately is to be learned by practice only. 

 As for a precise rule, an old friend used to say : "Pull, as soon 

 as the gun touches the shoulder, if not sooner." There is 

 humor in all wisdom, but perhaps an undue proportion in this 

 advice for practical use. All that can be said is : " Shoot as 

 soon as you know that the gun is right ; the sooner, the better." 

 After blowing a few birds to pieces, you will learn how far to 

 modify this rule. Many birds will be missed by being under- 

 shot, and many by not being shot at well ahead. Some sports- 

 man use number 8 shot ; some number 12 and intermediate 

 sizes. Number nine does very well. 



Autumn is the proper season for Snipe-shooting, both be- 

 cause the birds are then more certainly found and because they 

 are then very delicious morsels for the table. With us, when 

 they arrive in spring, they are lean, dry, and sinewy, from long 

 and hard exercise ; the period of breeding has already begun, 

 and well-developed eggs may often be found in the females. 

 There is as much difference between the rich, tender, and juicy 

 meat of the well-fed, lazy, autumn bird, and the meagre, dry, 

 and sinewy flesh of the spring traveler, as between that of a 

 stall-fed ox and that of a dray-horse. Yet there are many to 

 whose coarse palates no difference appears. No doubt, it is 

 hard to relinquish all field-sports in the spring ; without such 

 relief the period of inaction is long and tedious ; one's fingers 

 itch for the trigger. Yet spring Snipe-shooting is a sorry 

 pastime, and a wasteful one, unworthy of the true sportsman. 



(d). The notes of the Snipe are not susceptible of satisfac- 

 tory description ; their common note being a peculiar squeak, 

 while their extraordinary love-note is usually called " bleating." 



