238 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



many will flush almost at your feet. When wild, their 

 fljghts are long and rapid ; when not so, they droop their 

 wings, and frequently alight before a hundred yards have 

 been traversed. However, this does not apply to the whole 

 day ; for toward sunset, possibly from having by that time 

 digested their last night's meal for they feed principally 

 by night they invariably become wild, and more difficult 

 of approach. To be successful in making a heavy bag of 

 snipe, there is a rule which may be beneficial to the tyro to 

 remember, viz., always to hunt down wind, or as much so 

 as possible, provided always that dogs are not used. The 

 stronger the breeze, the more necessity for doing so ; the 

 reason being, that invariably snipe fly against the wind, and 

 being flushed by your advancing on them from windward, 

 the birds will wheel round to the right or left, and present 

 an easy cross-shot, in their determination to pursue the de- 

 sired direction. 



The migration of this snipe, as well as of the American 

 woodcock, is peculiar : all appear to act independently of 

 the other. Dozens may be seen to pass or light near you 

 in the space of a few minutes, yet each bird is alone. Many 

 an evening, after sunset, have I watched their coming, yet 

 never saw two or more together. These journeys take 

 place before sunrise and after sunset. This scattered mode 

 of traveling, and the hour at which it takes place, are 

 doubtless the reasons that none but close observers of na- 

 ture witness their arrival. By the end of May the migra- 

 tion of this snipe has ceased, and their summer-quarters 

 are reached, which are, as previously stated, principally 

 north of the great lakes and the St. Lawrence ; although 

 not a few spend the summer, in Nova Scotia, New Bruns- 

 wick, and Maine. Early in June they commence laying 

 their eggs, four in number, in a nest of the most primitive 

 construction, it being simply an indentation in some trifling 



