WOODCOCK, SNIPE, AND PLOVER. 267 



there, or a wisp of snipe sprung ; but that is nothing 

 compared to my time, when the moorland children 

 snared both snipe and woodcock in the season, and 

 the parents disposed of numbers of them in a mys- 

 terious direction. In the course of a morning's walk 

 I have come on scores of snares set in or near the 

 runnels in the moor. A strict principle of honesty 

 between cotter and cotter existed as to these ; each 

 man or boy knew his own springes, and he never 

 meddled with those of a neighbour. Whether this 

 be the case now, or otherwise, I am not prepared 

 to say. 



Before dismissing our long-billed friend, I would 

 just remark that his absence is only a part of other 

 changes, the wild spots he loved having vanished 

 also. As a game-bird with the sportsman he takes 

 high rank ; as an article of food-supply he is of no 

 real value, being simply a very small luxury on 

 toast. 



Much has been said about snipe, and by the most 

 distinguished of our naturalists ; for in certain dis- 

 tricts of the United Kingdom he exists, or did exist 

 only a few years back, in great numbers. To my 

 mind he is a more game-looking bird than his larger 



