TTPLAND SHOOTING. 141 



Scotia Now I am satisfied that, unless when the winter is ex- 

 tremely short and spring unusually warm and early to the West- 

 ward, this discrepancy is greatly overrated. 



The average commencement of Snipe-shooting, even in Dela- 

 ware, is not earlier, I am convinced, than the first of April ; and, 

 except in uncommonly early seasons, they appear almost simulta- 

 neously in New Jersey and New York. Early in April, I have 

 shot these birds in abundance close to the Falls of Niagara ; early 

 in April I have shot them in Maine ; and at the end of that same 

 month, I have shot them on the upland pastures around Quebec. - 



On average seasons, that is to say seasons in which the spring 

 is everywhere late and backward, I have found by my own ob- ',, ;'. 

 servation, that the arrival both of the Woodcock and of the Snipe 

 is nearly simultaneous, from Pennsylvania to Maine, and I believe 

 on enquiry such will prove to be the case. 



This is, however, except as a matter of curiosity, tending to 

 throw light on the breeding seasons of our bird in various places, 

 and so to enable us to legislate with most advantage for his pre- 

 servation, a matter of small importance ; for, from the moment 

 of his arrival in each several locality, until that of his departure, 

 he is incessantly persecuted and pursued ; and, as the causes of 

 his arrival are the same in all places, so will, I apprehend, be the 

 signs of bis coming also. 



The next obsei'vation that I would make in this place, is to 

 guard the sportsman, in the United States and Canada, from 

 placing the slightest reliance on the maxims, advice or opinions 

 promulgated, even in the best sporting books published in Eng- 

 land, concerning the Snipe, or its congener the Woodcock. 



The birds are in every respect different from the European ^, _, 

 species, as to tlieir habits, haunts and seasons; and one point of 

 difference alone is sufficient to render all that is laid down with ^ . 

 resrard to the manner of hunting them there, entirely useless ^ -, 

 here. There they are winter, here more or less summer, birds of 

 passage; so that the localities which they frequent in the two '^'^ 



hemispheres are of course nearly opposite. 



Not an English book but will tell you, and tell you truly, as ^i , P /: 



