COMMON SNIPE. 321 



landed on one marsh, of no great extent, than the snipes 

 rose on all sides, not in a body but two or three at a 

 time. If we walked on too quickly they rose behind 

 us ; if the dog fetched one he sprang several more, so 

 reluctant did they seem to take wing at all, and their 

 numbers were so extraordinary and so unlocked for, 

 that the eye became altogether confused, and it was 

 difficult to determine which to shoot at first.* In the 

 excitement of this novel scene, I well remember missing 

 five shots in succession with my first barrel, and killing 

 them all with the second ; and though in a very short 

 time we had secured twelve or fourteen couples, had I 

 been as good a snipe shot as my companion, and day- 

 light had lasted, we might easily have bagged eighteen 

 or twenty couples. 



It has been said that snipes are not in condition 

 till after the first frost, and certainly some of the 

 weightiest birds I ever handled have been killed during 

 the most severe weather. This however, arises from 

 the fact that although a severe frost compels the main 

 body to seek a milder climate,f yet a good many will 

 betake themselves at such times to the upland springs 

 or sedgy banks of meadow drains and rivulets, and in 

 these localities, even with a deep snow on the ground, 

 several couples may sometimes be met with, both common 

 and jack snipes, and always, under such circumstances, 

 in high condition. In January, 1861, and again in 

 the winter of 1866-67, during the extraordinarily sharp 

 weather, which at that time visited us for many weeks, 

 when nearly all the denizens of the broads had been 



* A somewhat similar occurrence is narrated in Thompson's 

 " Birds of Ireland" (vol. ii,, p. 262.) 



f It is probable that at these times the snipes take a westerly 

 as well as southerly direction, which would account for the unusual 

 numbers met with by Mr. Harry Blake Knox, in the county 

 Dublin, in January, 1867. See "Zoologist," 1868 (p. 1192). 

 2 T 



