288 SNIPES. 



Ireland, but I could not have imagined that the number of 

 these exquisite birds could be found within the same space, 



that one particular marsh which bounds the rabbit-banks pro- 

 duced. Independently of a quantity of detached birds, several 



open weather, but commonly springs and takes flight at a distance beyond 

 the reach of the gun. When first disturbed, it utters a kind of feeble 

 whistle, and gently flies against the wind, turning nimbly in a zigzag 

 direction for two or three hundred paces, and sometimes soaring almost 

 out of sight ; its note is then something like the bleating of a goat, but 

 is changed to a singular humming or drumming noise, uttered in its 

 descent. 



From its vigilance and manner of flying, it is one of the most difficult 



birds to shoot. Some sportsmen can imitate their cries, and by that 



. means draw them within reach of their shot ; others of a less honourable 



description, prefer the more certain and less laborious method of catching 



them in the night by a springe, like that which is used for the woodcock. 



The snipe is migratory, and is met with in all countries ; like the wood- 

 cock, it shuns the extremes of heat and cold by keeping upon the bleak 

 moors in summer, and seeking the shelter of the valleys in winter. In 

 severe frosts and storms of snow, driven by extremity of the weather, 

 snipes seek the unfrozen boggy places, runners from springs, or any open 

 streamlet of water, and they are sure to be found, often in considerable 

 numbers in these places, where they sometimes sit till nearly trodden 

 upon before they will take their flight. 



Although it is well known that numbers of snipes leave Great Britain 

 in the spring, and return in the autumn, yet it is equally well ascertained 



