272 SHORE BIRDS 



" drumming," or " tumbling," as it is called, is over. 

 Herbert says he would not have been more surprised 

 when he first saw the snipe perform in this manner, 

 had they begun to sing " God save the King," or more 

 appropriately, " Hail Columbia." 



One wild, windy morning when shooting with a 

 friend in Indiana, we found the birds all drumming, 

 and getting under them, I fired several shots at them 

 as they descended, but we did not kill a bird until 

 afternoon, when the sun came out warm and genial 

 and the birds ceased their performance and returned 

 to the fields. We then had good sport with them. 

 Snipe were formerly very abundant both in the spring 

 and fall. Forester tells of large bags made on the 

 meadows about the Hackensack and Passaic rivers. 

 Bogardus mentions killing, with a friend, three hun- 

 dred and forty of these birds in a day on the Sanga- 

 mon in Illinois, and says their bag was seldom so 

 small as seventy-five couple at the right time. The 

 larger score would indicate an average of a little less 

 than three birds every five minutes for ten hours. 

 Any one who has seen Bogardus smash glass-balls or 

 shoot pigeons at the trap can readily believe that he 

 could ably assist in the killing of such numbers; but 

 admitting the skill of Bogardus no one can kill all the 

 birds shot at, and many escape without a shot being 

 fired, either arising out of range, or while the gun is 

 being reloaded and flying away from the line of beat ; 

 so that it is evident there must have been myriads of 

 birds on the ground. I have seen these birds extremely 

 abundant in many places in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, 

 and upon several occasions made large bags, which 



