SNIPE AND WILDFOWL 71 



ever birds of passage, passing to and fro with the changes of 

 the weather, and in accordance with the migration from north 

 to south, or vice versa. Thus, when found in quantities they 

 should be gone at with a will, and it is of little use inviting a 

 friend to come and help "next week," for the chances are the 

 bulk of the flight will by then have passed on. 



The same ground that holds snipe will usually be visited by 

 ducks of all kinds, and these should invariably be looked for 

 up-wind, as their sense of smell is very keen. When ducks 

 of any sort are flushed, it is often difficult to remember to hold 

 the gun well over them, for at first they rise nearly straight up 

 in order to gain an altitude for their flight to another and 

 quieter spot. Duck and widgeon rarely return and settle near 

 the place they have been disturbed from, but teal seldom make 

 long flights, and will generally alight in the marsh they have 

 been moved from ; and, if the shooter keep hidden, they 

 will even at times return to pitch in the very place they 

 started from, so that plenty of shots should be got before they 

 are driven quite away. 



The marsh attached to Mr. E. Brydges Willyams' shootings 

 of Carnanton is as fine a piece of wildfowl ground as could be 

 desired, for anyone having the good luck to get a day on it 

 will be nearly sure to use the best part of a hundred cartridges ; 

 and the last winter time the author tran\ped it, on a very 

 bad day for snipe owing to quantities of "cat ice" and the 

 clatter it made in breaking, his bag was, five wild ducks, twenty- 

 four teal, and sixteen snipe ; and had these latter not been made 

 so wild by the noise of the breaking ice, the number could easily 

 have been trebled. 



This marsh has quite an historical interest, for during the 

 last two thousand years almost every foot of the large acreage 

 has been dug up for "tin streaming" purposes. The Phoeni- 

 cians, the ancient Britons, and the Romans worked on it, and 

 to this day the industry is still carried on, while the incessant 

 digging has rendered some parts of it so treacherous that the 



