SNIPE SHOOTING 



3 2I 



brook trout strong and gamey though they may be 

 out of a preserved pond. 



Something of this sort Mr. Waters expresses in 

 the admirable article on snipe shooting which follows 

 this. He has tramped the marshes where snipe were 

 scarce, and again where, as in Louisiana, they were 

 enormously abundant, and he, better than most gun- 

 ners, knows the oddities and eccentricities of this re- 

 markable bird. 



Mr. Waters' article, with slight changes, says: 



According to the writings of ornithologists, the 

 breeding grounds of the snipe begin on their south- 

 ern boundary, at about 42 degrees of latitude, a paral- 

 lel through the northern part of Nebraska, Iowa, etc. 

 The grounds extend thence north to the Arctic Circle. 

 The snipe migrate leisurely southward as the winter 

 season approaches, tarrying on the available feeding 

 grounds, ultimately going as far south as the West 

 Indies and northern South America. 



It is a bird of the wet lands, and as said of the 

 woodcock, the available area affording its food sup- 

 ply is small as compared with the earth's surface. 

 Relatively, the places which are soft enough to be bored 

 with its sensitive bill, which contain food to its liking, 

 and enough to supply its needs, are exceedingly lim- 

 ited in number and area. 



Soft and wet land may also be gravelly or sandy or 

 clayey, and therefore unfit to sustain the animal and 

 vegetable life on which the snipe subsists; or from its 

 refractory nature it may be impervious to the deli- 



