WOODCOCK, SNIPE, AND PLOVER. 273 



fatigue : it is only when really heavy snow sets in, 

 followed by keen frost, that the snipe comes to grief. 

 In such seasons hundreds perish, starved to death. 



They are not found now where they were once 

 plentiful, because their haunts have been turned into 

 corn-fields ; the partridge calls to his mate where the 

 snipe hummed and bleated high overhead, for the 

 benefit of his long-billed partner as she sat on her 

 large handsome eggs far below him. 



If birds come upon a suitable locality as regards 

 cover and food, they soon frequent it. From one 

 small pool, where there was a warm spring, that never 

 froze even in the hardest weather, surrounded by fine 

 alders and willows, I have put up wild duck, teal, and 

 moor-hens, water-rails and snipes, to say nothing of 

 the herons that visited the spot. This was in hard 

 weather. As to siskins and redpolls, or redpolled 

 linnets, the alders were alive with them. 



The owner, a miller, gave me permission to shoot 

 there ; and he or his son usually accompanied me, 

 for it required two of us to shoot there properly. 

 After a mallard had plumped down dead with a 

 splash, or a snipe had given the last flick with his 

 wings as he lay spread-eagled out on the green weeds 



s 



