SNIPE 291 



places where he dreams in seclusion; but still his plump- 

 ness, greater spread of tail and characteristic flight like 

 that of a golden plover and the two external white-tipped 

 tail-feathers, betray him. He, too, is excellent on toast, 

 though hard to come by; for he is "more slinky," as the 

 fenmen say, and rarest of all. 



And so farewell, my grotesque birds, dedicated to the 

 chef-de-cuisine fare you well, with your monstrous love 

 songs, strange guzzling habits, amusing skulking flights. 

 You, too, have your poetry, after twenty minutes in a hct 

 oven on toast ; and may you yearly bring forth your 

 beautiful little fledglings, and lead them safely down to the 

 bright waterside for aye this baptismal pilgrimage being 

 but the forerunner of the great sacrificial feast that awaits 

 them on the table of all who are artists enough to know a 

 snipe from a hernshaw. Increase and multiply, ye grotesque 

 ones and may the cfiefbz with you. 



