SNIPE SHOOTING 95 



for snipe life. The rich alluvial meadows of such noble streams 

 as the Annapolis, Stewiacke and Musquodoboit rivers have an 

 irresistible charm for this vagrant game bird. Here the long inter- 

 vale valleys, with deep soil productive of excellent pasture, are 

 ornamented with the graceful pendulous foliage of tall elm trees 

 which the settlers agree in sparing. Their tall trunks, adorned with 

 rich festoons of matted foliage like classic columns draped for some 

 great occasion, much enhance the natural charm of the scenery. 



The snipe shooter may bait his horse at almost any of the big 

 grey barns along the roadside, and be hospitably welcomed at the 

 comfortable white homesteads nestling amid their luxuriant apple 

 orchards. 



The very best time for snipe shooting in Canada is when the 

 northern birds are daily arriving. This usually happens during 

 the last fortnight of October. Then throughout the low-lying 

 marsh land of Lower Canada ' resounds the frequent gun ', and the 

 sportsman enjoys the best days in his calendar. 



Somewhere near mid-October, should a fine warm morning 

 succeed two or three days of a stiff nor 'wester, by all means carpe 

 diem. Happy man who is now free to order out his horse and trap 

 and leave behind, fumum strepitumque the smoke and noise 

 brooding over the care-worn city. One need not travel many miles 

 before he arrives at some low-lying meadows where the ground 

 has been largely given up to its own devices, and is being slowly 

 encroached upon by luxuriant alder coppice. Your dogs at this 

 season may be up against birds lying close to the sward at almost 

 every turn. 



A little brook will usually be found, sunk perhaps a few feet 

 below the level of the meadow, in places eating deeply into the 

 thick layers of deep rich soil. There are one or two bends in the 

 channel your faithful old setter knows them as well as you do 

 which in snipe season are absolutely never without birds, and you 

 are so well prepared for their exit at these points that you almost 

 feel ashamed of taking what seems to you an undue advantage of 

 your knowledge of their whereabouts. 



The early shooting, however, is often not to be despised. Say 

 that it is the ist of September, the opening of the shooting season. It 

 is quite possible that the breeding snipe may not have as yet been 

 disturbed, for few rustics have powder to waste on a bird which 

 generally ' snaps its fingers ', so to speak, at their efforts for its 

 discomfiture. These will be found fat and lazy from their epicurean 

 habits and freedom from pursuit, and allow a near approach before 

 taking wing. 



It is well worth while to study at all times the habits and haunts 



