Snipe - Shoo ti tig. 699 



soon as he steps on the meadow whether the birds have recently 

 been here ; for in the cattle paths or in places where the hogs have 

 been rooting, or on the bare side of a tussock where no grass grows, 

 the soil will be perforated by numerous tiny holes, showing where 

 the hill has been inserted in the mud in the search for food. The 

 presence of high grasses or reeds may sometimes keep the birds 

 away from marshes to which they would resort in numbers if it were 

 not for the luxuriance of the vegetation. They do not like to alight 

 among such thick cover, and besides, they cannot easily get at the 

 ground. It is therefore customary, in the early spring before their 

 arrival, to burn over such tracts, and places that have been treated 

 in this way are favorite resorts for the travelers. 



At present the Wilson's snipe is shot at all times and seasons, 

 and has no protection under the law. The result of this unwise 



ruction is clearly seen in the greatly diminished numbers of the 

 birds which annually visit our more accessible meadows. If a female 

 snipe, killed in April or May, be dissected, she will be found to con- 

 tain eggs in an advanced stage of development, varying in size from 

 a marble to an egg nearly ready for exclusion. Many of the birds 

 paired long before they leave us in spring. They certainly 

 should not be«shot at this season, just as they are about to rear their 

 young. Snipe-shooting in autumn is much more satisfactory, and 

 the birds appear to be more numerous than in the spring, because 

 at this season their feeding-grounds are more contracted, and they 

 concentrate on the meadows that are always wet, and about ponds 

 and marshes which have margins of black mud, in which they 

 delight to bore. The prospect of finding them is thus much better 

 than when they are dispersed over a much greater area. 



The main body of the snipe leave us by the latter part of Novem- 

 ber, but a few prolong their stay into December, lingering as long 

 as their feeding-grounds remain open. As with the woodcock, the 

 cold is only indirectly the cause of their departure : the impossibility 

 of their longer obtaining food being the immediate motive which 

 drives them south. On the Laramie plains, where In winter the 

 temperature falls sometimes to — 30 , and even — 40 , Fahrenheit, a 

 nij>e are to be found throughout the winter, about certain warm 

 springs which never freeze. 



our birds are so poor in local names as this one. for it is 

 almost everywhere known either as the " English " or the "jack n 



