SNIPE SHOOTING. 47 



But why are snipe uncertain in their move- 

 ments on the feeding ground ? 



It is supposed to be owing, in some measure, 

 to the nature of their food, and to the enormous 

 quantity which they require, in common with 

 other birds of their genus, and also to their sus- 

 ceptibility to the influences of the weather at 

 no season of the year more subject to sudden fluc- 

 tuations of temperature than early in the spring. 

 Always feeding from choice in open marshes, 

 they may be found in sufficient numbers to afford 

 excellent sport to-day, when the weather is mo- 

 derately warm, and light clouds, borne on a brisk 

 breeze from the south-west, cast their shadows on 

 bare bog or tussock, as they drift over head. But 

 should the wind shift, and come on to blow 

 strong from the north-east, as is often the case 

 during the night, the next morning you may tra- 

 verse the marshes in vain, in the face of a lower- 

 ing sky ; the birds are off for cover ; and unless 

 you have a particular fancy to be detained three 

 or four days in a snow storm, at a country inn, 

 you had better be off, too, for you will have no 

 more shooting on that excursion. 



This is very apt to occur when the birds are 

 in advance of the season, and has happened with 

 us again and again in March, and even in April. 



