350 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST 



the shelter of the valleys in winter. In severe frosts 

 and storms of snow, driven by extremity of the weather, 

 snipes seek the unfrozen boggy places, runners from 

 springs, or any open streamlet of water, and they are sure 

 to be found, often in considerable numbers in these 

 places, where they sometimes sit till nearly trodden 

 upon before they will take their flight. 



Although it is well-known that numbers of snipes 

 leave Great Britain in the spring, and return in the 

 autumn, yet it is equally well ascertained that many 

 constantly remain, and breeds in various parts of the 

 country, for their nests and young ones have been so 

 often found as to leave no doubt of this fact. The female 

 makes her nest in the most retired and inaccessible 

 parts of the morass, generally upon the stump of an 

 alder or willow ; it is composed of withered grass and 

 a few feathers ; her eggs, four or five in number, are of 

 an oblong shape, and of a greenish colour, with rusty 

 spots ; the young ones run off soon after they are freed 

 from the shell, but they are attended by the parent birds 

 until their bills have acquired a sufficient firmness to 

 enable them to provide for themselves. 



The snipe is a very fat bird, but its fat does not cloy, 

 and very rarely disagrees even with the weakest stomach. 

 It is much esteemed as a delicious and well-flavoured 

 dish, and is cooked in the same manner as the woodcock. 



Snipes, when plenty, afford very excellent sport, it 

 being allowed to be the pleasantest, on account of the 

 quick succession of shots ; this is also the best shooting 

 for practice, seldom failing to make indifferent shots 

 most excellent ones. There is no shooting that presents 

 such a variety of shots, scarcely any two being alike. 

 These birds usually fly against the wind, therefore 



