242 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



wick, and Maine. Early in June they commence laying 

 their eggs, four in number, in a nest of the most primitive 

 construction, it being simply an indentation in some trifling 

 excrescence of the surface. The eggs, which are of a 

 yellowish brown colour, blotched with dark markings, taper 

 very much towards the small end ; they are always placed 

 in the nest with the larger end outwards. As soon as the 

 young are hatched, they leave the nest, and in six weeks 

 afterwards are almost full grown. At this age it is impos- 

 sible to tell the Wilson snipe from our home variety ; 

 however, at any period the only difference that exists is 

 that one species has two more feathers in the wing than 

 the other. 



Last year but one I shot snipe day after day, till a surfeit 

 might have been expected, and only desisted when the 

 advancement of the season proclaimed the approach of the 

 period for breeding ; and, though some might imagine such 

 a lengthened campaign would have sufficed for coming 

 years, before twelve months had slipped past I stretched 

 my arms, looked at the sky, observed the wind, all three of 

 which being favourable, anathematised, perhaps, the destiny 

 or fate that compelled me to accept more sedentary town 

 occupation. 



With that intuitive feeling that tells the swallow when 

 to migrate, the fish a change of weather, or the cattle the por- 

 tended storm we feel certain that all the southern prairies 

 of Illinois are now alive (March) with snipe, that they are 

 lying well to the gun, and that heavy bags are being made. 

 We can even shut our eyes and imagine that we are just 

 approaching some favourite spot either bordering on a 



