7 oo Snipe - Shooting. 



snipe. Along the New England coast, however, it has an appella- 

 tion which is rather curious. As the bird arrives about the same 

 time as the shad, and is found on the meadows along the rivers 

 where the nets are hauled, the fishermen, when drawing their seines 

 at night, often start it from its moist resting-place, and hear its sharp 

 cry as it flies away through the darkness. They do not know the 

 cause of the sound, and from the association they have dubbed its 

 author the "shad spirit." 



The snipe is either a bird of weak mind, deplorably vacillating 

 in character, or else he is much more shrewd and profound than 

 any one thinks. At all events, he is notorious among sportsmen for 

 two characteristics, denoting either high intelligence or lamentable 

 indecision. 



Most birds when they rise from the ground appear to have some 

 definite idea of the direction in which they wish to go, and having 

 started in a particular line of flight, keep to it, unless turned by some 

 alarming apparition before them. Not so with the snipe, however. 

 He springs from the ground uttering his curious squeaking cry, darts 

 a few yards one way, changes his mind, and turns almost at right 

 angles to his original course ; then he appears to think he has made 

 a mistake, and once more alters his direction, and so twists off, 

 "angling " across the meadow until he is safely out of gunshot. He 

 then either rises high in the air and swings about for awhile, looking 

 for a desirable spot to alight, or else settles down into a straight, 

 swift course, which he keeps up until his fright is over or he has 

 come to a spot which is to his liking, when he throws himself to the 

 earth, and with a peculiar toss of his wings checks his progress and 

 alights. The eccentric zigzag flight of this species is very puzzling 

 to many sportsmen ; and some who are capital shots at other birds 

 appear never to be able to calculate the movements of the snipe. 

 The secret of success in killing these birds consists, we believe, in 

 great quickness, — that is, in wasting no time in an attempt to follow 

 their flight, but in pulling the trigger at the moment the gun is on 

 the object. The peculiar cry which is uttered at short intervals 

 during its flight is sometimes extremely irritating, especially after 

 one has missed with both barrels. What appeared when first heard 

 to be only an expression of fright, or a call of warning to its compan- 

 ions, sounds to the disappointed shooter, as it comes back to him 



