312 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



of February.* If detained for some days by contrary 

 winds, there is usually good sport at this time of year, 

 although the main body soon pass on again to their 

 northern homes ; but the custom which, I am sorry to 

 say, very generally prevails of shooting snipe even as late 

 as the first and second week in April, cannot be too 

 strongly deprecated, inasmuch as the females are then 

 either heavy with egg or actually engaged in incuba- 

 tion; whilst many that would remain to breed in our 

 marshes are thus slaughtered or driven out of the 

 county. Surely the proprietors of our local snipe- 

 grounds, who have the power of preserving in their 

 own hands must, on reflection, see the fallacy of thus 

 killing the old birds in spring, when, if allowed quietly 

 to establish themselves for the summer, their progeny 

 would aiford more certain sport in the course of the 

 following autumn. Before long, it is to be hoped, an 

 act may be passed to preserve all this class of birds 

 in the breeding season, and having seen the effect 

 during the last few years of the protective system, 

 both at Hoveton and Surlinghani, I have no doubt as 

 to a favourable result. On the latter broad, during the 

 first week of August, 1865, an unusual number having 

 remained to breed, I flushed between thirty and forty 

 couples on one small marsh. Three, which I shot, 

 proved to be young birds of the year in fair condition, 

 and quick on the wing, but up to that time, the marsh- 

 man assured me, no foreign flights had made their 



* Yarrell states that their return in the month of February 

 or March, is regulated by the same atmospheric influences that 

 cause certain wild flowers to bloom earlier or later in different 

 seasons, and adds, " by attending to these coincidences a Norfolk 

 sportsman will rarely be disappointed in his expectations of amuse- 

 ment at this time of year." The usual term of re-migration he 

 considers to be between the 14th of March and the end of that 

 month. 



