WILSON'S SNIPE. 205 



sess very acute organs of hearing, and take wing at the slightest 

 noise which is "wafted gently o'er the moor," from all quarters 

 and from very great distances ; and when one rises, if in wisps of 

 two, three, or more, the alarm most usually becomes general, and 

 the example is followed by all the others in quick succession. 



Notwithstanding these birds are, perhaps, more difficult to be 

 killed on a windy day than a mild one, there are but few snipe- 

 shooters that would not prefer a moderately blustering day to a 

 calm one, as the points in favor of the former certainly overbalance 

 all that can be said of the latter condition of the elements, and 

 that very considerably. In this opinion we presume that we are 

 sustained by nearly all our sporting friends ; however, there are 

 some of our acquaintances one at least, and, what is more sur- 

 prising, a very acute observer, too, of all things in general, and 

 more particularly of every thing appertaining to the sports of the 

 field who will, at times, contend for the opposite, and strive most 

 pertinaciously to support this erroneous opinion, in spite of all the 

 powerful arguments brought to bear against it by men not his 

 inferiors in any point of view as sportsmen. 



The only argument worth alluding to and which, in fact, is not 

 an argument, but merely a position or assertion that these advo- 

 cates of calm weather adduce in support of their opinion is the 

 fact "of the shooter so frequently overwalking the birds on a 

 windy day, and seeing them get up far behind him after he has 

 passed over the places where he expected to find them." This 

 circumstance, however, is not owing to the state of the atmosphere, 

 but is rather the consequence of his own ignorance and bad manage- 

 ment in not quartering the ground properly, which is of the utmost 

 importance in snipe-shooting, when pursued without the assistance 

 of a dog. When we say that the sportsman must hunt down wind, 

 we do not mean that he should walk directly with the wind on his 

 back, but rather that he should proceed in an oblique course, so as 

 to quarter the ground in such a manner as to travel within hearing- 

 distance of every snipe which may be feeding around. By follow- 

 ing this plan, the birds rise on a windy day within ten, fifteen, or 



