BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 251 



the character of the feeding ground by flooding the meadows 

 with salt water. The diminution of the Snipe may have been 

 exaggerated, but such reports have been coming in for many 

 years from all over its range. They cannot be ignored. What 

 are we going to do about it? Birds like the Snipe and Wood- 

 cock, which rear small broods, cannot recover so rapidly from 

 overshooting as can Grouse, Bob-whites or Ducks, all of which 

 rear large broods. The very least that should be done is to 

 stop the spring shooting of Snipe in every State within its 

 range, and forbid summer shooting wherever it breeds. In 

 co-operation with Canada and Mexico we can readily protect 

 and increase this valuable bird. 



The fact that flights of this Snipe frequently land near 

 the tip of Cape Cod and all along its outer arm, and also at 

 Nantucket, indicates that it strikes boldly out to sea in migra- 

 tion, thus taking a short cut to the south. Snipe land on Ber- 

 muda in considerable numbers, and some winter on the Antilles. 

 This leads to the inference that there is a regular fall flight of 

 Snipe from regions north of us, which put out to sea like some 

 of the well-known shore birds, and steer directly to the West 

 Indies, some stopping at Bermuda on the way. Thus we may 

 account for the fact that the fall flight of Snipe, in eastern 

 Massachusetts and Rhode Island at least, is much smaller ordi- 

 narily than the spring flight. Most of the fall birds from the 

 north possibly land here only when driven in by storms, and 

 the spring birds come back by land; otherwise, considering the 

 effect of shooting, etc., the spring flight would be the smaller. 

 Prof. W. W. Cooke speaks of a hunter near Newport, R. I., 

 who secured scarcely a third as many birds in the fall, for a 

 period of eight years, as he did in the spring. 



It is noted often that during easterly storms numbers of 

 Snipe are seen on our meadows, and that fewer are seen in 

 fine weather. This is due no doubt in part to their being blown 

 inshore by adverse winds, but it is partly due also to the 

 fact that the Snipe feed largely at night, or in dull, cloudy or 

 foggy weather, which often is the best for Snipe shooting, and 

 like to hide in some chosen retreat to sleep away the best 

 hours of a sunny day. The Snipe migrate at night. I have 



