274 SHORE BIRDS 



ing ground by much tramping over it, and in such 

 places I have recently found snipe abundant where 

 there were none a few years ago. 



The season before last I was fishing in the waters of 

 the St. Clair flats, and for some miles about the small 

 hotel where I was stopping the reeds and grasses 

 were entirely too long and heavy to harbor snipe. 

 The rails were abundant, both the small varieties and 

 the large king rails, but there was not enough water 

 in the grass to float a boat, and sportsmen well know 

 success does not follow the pursuit of rails afoot. It 

 was September and I knew the snipe must be passing 

 upon their Southern migration, and made repeated in- 

 quiries for them. I was assured by my landlord, who 

 was very fond of shooting, that there were none about ; 

 but once when I was on a tour of inspection through 

 the waterways to the eastward in the direction of the 

 middle channel, I was lost in a blind cut and found at 

 its head a dairy farm which supplied some of the large 

 hotels about the south channel with milk. Upon go- 

 ing ashore to make some inquiries I flushed a snipe 

 and noticed the cattle had made the ground most suit- 

 able for feeding. The owner of the ranch had no ob- 

 jection to my shooting. I fortunately had a gun in 

 the boat and several boxes of cartridges, and I was 

 soon at work with the birds, shooting over a brace of 

 spaniels which belonged to the dairy-man. I did 

 some very good shooting, and when I returned with 

 the birds my landlord expressed surprise at my find- 

 ing any so near at hand. 



Here is an excellent suggestion for the duck clubs, 

 especially those frequented by the shoal-water ducks, 



