186 lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN". 



age, owing to the softness and delicacy of tbeir bills, the young 

 Snipes are unable to probe the slimy bogs for worms, and there- 

 fore are forced to content themselves with collecting the larvae, 

 small insects, and snails that are found on the surface, or hid 

 away in the grass or moss. At the expiration, however, of a 

 few weeks, they are sufficiently strong, and their bills quite 

 hard enough, to penetrate into the moist grounds in search of 

 more savory food. 



RETURN TO THE SOUTH. ■ 



Snipes commence returning to the South in the month of 

 September, accompanied by their young, and of course stop for 

 a while in all their old haunts along the route. They remain 

 during several wrecks in New Jersey and Delaware, and get 

 very fat while feeding on the marshes. Although they most 

 frequently appear very suddenly, and in large numbers, in cer- 

 tain localities, they are not gregarious, but perform their migra- 

 tions singly, or in very small Wisps, seldom exceeding four or 

 five. 



The flight of the Snipe, even when going to a considerable 

 distance, is very irregular and devious; they must, however, 

 fly with rapidity, as they spread themselves over so wide an 

 extent of country in so short a space of time. 



Snipes are, without doubt, very fickle and uncertain in their 

 movements, resorting in great abundance to certain spots on 

 one day, and entirely abandoning them on the following, with- 

 out any apparent cause, save perhaps a trifling change in the 

 wind or weather, seeming to possess a restless spirit, which 

 forces them to seek on one day the high and open grounds, and 

 on the next the low and sheltered marshes. The presence of a 

 slight and almost imperceptible frost, or the springing up of 

 a Northeasterly wind during the night time, influences the 

 wanderings of these Birds at early dawn, and their sudden ap- 

 pearance or absence from certain localities is often a source of 

 astonishment to the Sportsman, who, luxuriating on his downy 

 couch, dreams of the morrow's sport, little heeding the insidious 

 change in the elements that drives the sensitive Snipe from the 



