282 SHORE BIRDS 



often passing immediately overhead. A few which 

 went out over the water, returned and pitched quite 

 near me, and having marked them, I went to them at 

 once with the dogs at heel. One day I took a set- 

 ter in my boat when I left the Star Island hotel, and 

 shot over him with the spaniels at heel. The small 

 dogs made far better retrievers, going through and 

 under the heavy rushes, reeds, and grasses, where the 

 birds often fell ; while the setter soon tired himself out, 

 floundering about and trying to move by jumping over 

 them. The Snipe is often called Jack Snipe or Eng- 

 lish Snipe, but the English Snipe is rarely seen as a 

 straggler to our country. 



A light shooting-coat and short trousers, and for me 

 light stout shoes and leggins, make up the costume 

 for snipe-shooting. Many go afield wearing the long 

 rubber boots or waders. I prefer to travel light and 

 get wet, and rely upon an immediate change of foot- 

 wear at night to prevent a cold. 



