THE AMERICAN SNIPE. 93 



birds and old together, full grown and in fine condition, 

 begin to reappear in the marshes of Quebec and its vicin- 

 ity, which may be said to be the extremest northern point 

 from which we have continuous and authentic annual 

 information of their appearance. At that time the 

 slaughter of the snipe on the marshes of Chateau Richer, 

 and of the islands farther down the St. Lawrence, is pro- 

 digious. There they linger until the ffosts become so 

 severe as to drive them from their feeding-grounds, 

 which generally takes place early in September, from 

 which time, throughout that month, all October, and a 

 portion more or less according to the season of No- 

 vember, and even December, every likely swamp, mo- 

 rass, and feeding-ground of Canada West, of the western, 

 midland, and eastern states, from which they are not 

 persecuted and banished by the incessant banging of 

 pot-hunters and idle village boys, swarms with them, in 

 quantities sufficient to afford sport to hundreds, and a 

 delicacy to thousands of our inhabitants, if they were 

 protected from useless and unmeaning persecution, by 

 which alone they are prevented from being as numerous 

 among us as at any former period. 



For I am well assured, that unlike the woodcock, 

 which, breeding in our midst, and dwelling with us for 

 months at a time, is annually slaughtered while breeding, 

 hatching, or immature, and is thus in rapid progress 

 towards extirpation the snipe, when unmolested in its 

 breeding-grounds, is not diminished in its numerical pro- 



