94 SNIPE SHOOTING 



was reached rather late on three or four successive evenings, and 

 the dogs turned into the covert with the little bells attached to their 

 collars as usual. On the second and each subsequent evening all 

 the snipe were seen to get up in a body and leave the marsh while 

 the bells were tinkling at a long distance away. The cock, however, 

 took no notice whatever of this music even when quite close at 

 hand. 



The rare intelligence shown by the snipe in setting a broken 

 leg has often been commented on. Some years ago an instance came 

 under my notice. The limb had been broken almost at the middle 

 joint. The most skilful surgery would not have set the bone in 

 better shape. A ligament of exceedingly fine fibre had been tightly 

 wound round the fracture, and the whole was coated over by a 

 gelatinous transparent substance which resembled a veneer of 

 shellac varnish. 



The great mass of American snipe breed in the vast stretches of 

 marsh lands which extend over so large a portion of the northern 

 part of the continent. Many, however, rear their young in the 

 sheltered meadow lands of Maine, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick 

 and the province of Quebec. These move slowly southwards as 

 soon as the severe frosts set in, and afterwards are overtaken by 

 the bigger flights from the north. Large bodies winter in the 

 Gulf States, whence their northward migration begins about the 

 1st of February. By the ist of March they have reached the 

 Carolinas and Virginia. They cross into Canada early in April. 



Unfortunately in most States these birds have little or no pro- 

 tection under the law, and hence are shot in season or out of season 

 with heartless indifference. The result of this unwise destruction, 

 coupled with the constant reclaiming of marsh lands, would tend 

 more seriously to diminish their numbers were it not for the inacces- 

 sible character of their breeding range far in the interior of the 

 vast northern solitude where man in his endless search for the means 

 of subsistence seldom or never penetrates. 



The province of Quebec with its vast stretches of marsh levels, 

 broadly bordering both sides of the noble St. Lawrence ; the dry- 

 dyked areas at the edge of the great Bay of Fundy, where a man can 

 shoot snipe in his slippers without wetting his feet ; the celebrated 

 marsh lands of the broad Tantramar, famed for its romantic 

 history, afford noted snipe grounds. One half of New Brunswick 

 is rocky and sterile or else covered with dense forest. The other 

 half is highly cultivated, valley and dale, with smiling orchards, 

 having here and there neglected strips of moist waste lands, which, 

 while they daunt the farmer, are the delight of the sportsman. 

 Nova Scotia possesses every variety of soil, and all requisites suitable 



