96 SNIPE SHOOTING 



of the snipe, which vary with changing atmospheric conditions. 

 A thorough knowledge in this regard will often enable one sportsman 

 to fill his bag while another may be making up his mind that every 

 single snipe has fled the country. It often happens, for example, 

 that in the chilly nipping weather of late autumn, the ordinary 

 haunts of snipe in the open may be gone over in vain, and it will 

 be found that the birds have betaken themselves to the haunts 

 of their near relatives the woodcock, amid alder coppice and the 

 cover of sapling growths of beech or maple. 



It is not generally known that resident snipe frequently have 

 alternative resorts. Should one find a meadow covered with fresh 

 markings indicating the recent presence of the birds, yet find them 

 absent, carefully examine the surrounding land. Possibly back of 

 that belt of dark firs cresting yonder slope one may be surprised to 

 discover a sheltered little bit of marsh of whose existence you had 

 never dreamed before, where the missing birds hide away in the 

 daytime. Such a bit I lately discovered through which flashed 

 a trickling rill bordered by rank sedges and bunches of royal and 

 oak ferns, where the birds which I could not find on a neighbouring 

 marsh were hid away in safe seclusion. 



Many a bird the experienced gunner will pick up while lying low 

 on some raw and gusty day. Suddenly a snipe will be seen to spring 

 from the grass as if loosed from a catapult. Skirring away over the 

 rushy levels, zigzagging in a wild reckless mood, away he goes, 

 until the eye vainly essays to follow his amazing aerial convolutions. 

 As he watches, the little bird becomes once again a visible speck 

 in the grey sky, whirling hither and thither as if alarmed at each 

 turn by confronting some fearful apparition, or as if striving 

 strenuously with some overmastering temptation against his 

 better judgment. Suddenly, however, their resolute mood passes ; 

 the bird has now a definite idea of the direction he wishes to travel. 

 He pitches down within a few feet of the place whence he had been 

 flushed, 'doubtless while regaling himself on some peculiarly rich 

 repast. On such occasions especially, his mode of alighting may 

 be studied to advantage. The bird just before touching earth raises 

 both wings pointing skyward, makes a short turn, then, with a 

 sudden jerk, pitches down backwards. Snipe often appear to 

 alight when they begin a low skimming flight close to the ground, 

 and bewilder the novice, who thinks that he has marked them down 

 with exactness. Nevertheless, unless one has witnessed this peculiar 

 wing motion and jerking of the body in the air, he may rest assured 

 his bird has not alighted. 



Snipe, like plover, collect in a large company at times when their 

 ordinary feeding grounds are dried up, or happen to be inundated 



