WEATHER ON SHOOTING. 205 



late in the season, search turnip and potato 

 fields on the edges of the moors as carefully as 

 you would the moors themselves. Should the 

 ground be close to the seashore, and this wind 

 bearing in on the land, look sharp for wild 

 duck in the drains. In ordinary weather they 

 would have fled out towards the waters until 

 dusk; this east wind keeps them back. But 

 it makes the snipe as wild as hawks, as swift as 

 swallows, and thins them as though they filled 

 their bellies with it, and with nothing else. It 

 is strange that the snipe will dwindle in Mr. 

 Kingsley's hard grey weather, but on the first 

 touch of frost his appetite is awakened, and he 

 gains an aldermanic plumpness in a very short 

 period. Mind, I say the " first " touch of frost, 

 for should the frost continue a couple of weeks, 

 the snipe is but the shadow of its former sub- 

 stance, as much changed from its original con- 

 dition as a French pig differs from an English 

 one. 



If you do not despise curlew they are per- 

 haps less difficult to come at with the wind 

 from the east or north-east than at other 

 times ; but there is no bird so hard to circum- 



