SNIPE SHOOTING 



with birds, he says, now hardly hold a bird. He thinks 

 some disease or Indian droughts must account for it. 

 Another absentee, Mr. Robinson has noticed, during the 

 last six years, a former arrival with the north-east mon- 

 soon, is the harrier-hawk. Snipe also arrive there later 

 than formerly and remain well on into May, whereas, 

 years ago, not a bird was to be found after I5th April. 



Personally, I have certainly noticed a shortage in 

 Matale, but that may be accounted for by the opening 

 up of the jungle, or chena lands, which formerly sur- 

 rounded the paddy fields, but I also am of opinion the 

 north country is not what it was when Lieutenant Rice 

 made his great bag. 1893 seems to have been the last big 

 year for the north also. 



A well-known sportsman, writing to me on the subject 

 of snipe, says : 



" The chief change of recent years is that improved 

 weapons and means of transport have made the snipe 

 much less plentiful than they used to be. Fifty brace 

 in a morning is a bag very rarely secured nowadays, 

 whereas it used to be a not uncommon occurrence. The 

 facility with which birds can be sent to Colombo, and the 

 great demand for them, has called into existence a body 

 of professional native sportsmen who, during the season, 

 do nothing but shoot, so that all places within reach of 

 the railway are in a very short time left practically bare 

 of birds. This evil is likely to increase, and there can be 

 little doubt that snipe will continue to decrease year by 

 year. I also very much doubt whether so many birds 

 come in now as used to the increased destruction leaves 

 fewer to return to India and proportionately fewer, there- 

 fore, to return in the season." 



No one is better able to form an opinion on the 



'5 



