SNIPE SHOOTING. 99 



killed it on the spot. Wliencver any of his brother officers found 

 a jack-snipe, they were alAvays sure to say, " There goes Quarter- 

 master Molloy." 



On the abundance of snipes formerly, Mr. Daniel tells us, 

 *' Snipes in the Cambridgeshii-e fens were, thirty years ago, most 

 abundant; those brought to Cambridge market, which at that 

 time were all shot birds, sold at threepence to fivepence each. In 

 1775, the compiler killed, in three mornings, thirty-three couple of 

 snipes ; and from having known his father's men catch them by- 

 drawing with a net in the night-time, he mentioned to a person 

 near Milton Fen his surprise that this mode of taking them had 

 not been resorted to. The fenman inquired what sort of net was 

 to_ be used, and was told a lark-net would answer the purpose of a 

 trial; this the fenman soon borrowed, and the first night of his 

 making the experiment, caught as many snipes as a small hamper 

 could contain. The practice soon became general, and the netted 

 were so much better than the shot birds, that the latter would 

 scarcely find a purchaser in the market. The price at Cambridge 

 has increased to a shilling, and sometimes eighteen pence apiece. 

 The Dulce of Marlborough's gamekeeper, some years since, killed 

 tw^enty-two snipes at one shot." 



A Erench sporting writer tells us, that in the year 1793, there 

 were such immense flocks of snipes settled along the south-eastern 

 Coast of Erance, that they were taken in cart-loads. They were so 

 weak and feeble, that the peasants used to knock them down with 

 theii- hands or their hats. As this occurred at the dreadful climax 

 of the revolutionary frenzy, the country people thou";ht the pre- 

 sence of these birds in such multitudes was a miracle, and very- 

 few, in consequence of this notion, were eaten.* 



The localities for good snipe shooting are various. In England, 

 Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Northamptonshire, are favourite 

 Counties, and the Essex marshes have been long known and cele- 

 brated for snipe sporting. The birds are likewise to be found in 

 several places in the northern part of England, in Yorkshii-e, Dur- 

 ham, Cimiberland, and Westmorland. They are, on the whole, 

 more numerous in Scotland than in England. In the former 

 country wisps of thirty and forty are not uncommon in the boggy 

 and marshy lands, near the lochs and rivers of this part of Britain. 

 Ireland, however, carries off the palm for_ the great abundance of 

 snipes. It is no uncommon sporting achievement to kill forty or 

 fifty brace in a few hours. They are to be met with in every sec- 

 tion of the country. In North and South Wales there is Hkewise 

 good sport. We have known twenty brace killed among the moun- 

 tain bo^s there in four hours, and this, too, in comparatively un- 

 favourable weather. We can scarcely move in any direction in 

 South Wales without meeting with vast numbers of these birds, 

 only we must seek after and follow them in very odd places, and 

 must never grumble to plunge up to the middle to gain our object, 

 * La Chasse, de Normandie. 1801. 



