190 ENEMIES OF SNIPE 



time so light and fine, that they can twist and turn 

 with the greatest rapidity, more quickly than any other 

 bird I know of, and they can keep up this rotatory 

 motion for an indefinite time, especially when in 

 danger from their greatest enemy, the merlin, which, 

 with the exception of the male sparrow-hawk, is the 

 only bird which can successfully circumvent the fast 

 twisting flight of the snipe, and more often than not 

 achieves its object rather by exhausting its victim, 

 being possessed of greater strength and endurance, to 

 say nothing of being generally in the highest possible 

 condition, induced by constantly stooping at snipe over 

 bogs and marshes in all sorts of weather. Anyone 

 who has ever seen a snipe ' roading ' for its own 

 amusement near a breeding swamp must have been 

 struck with the everlasting twisting circles which it is 

 able to keep up. It may therefore be concluded that 

 the less snipe are alarmed when they are put up, the 

 sooner they will settle in their flight. I have observed 

 when snipe-shooting in the company of other guns on 

 the dark, soft, west-windy days so dear to the snipe- 

 shooter, days when the birds lie so close that they may 

 be often passed over, that it is very necessary to keep 

 one's self extra steady, for the very fact of being able to 

 approach so close to the birds before they rise but 

 causes them to twist and turn about more than at 

 other times, by reason of their being more alarmed 

 when they are put up, and it is necessary to be as 

 quiet and move as noiselessly as possible, and to be 

 careful not to fire until the bird is well out, or crossing 

 up-wind, which all snipe will do if not too much scared, 

 and thereby forced to make too large a circle out of 

 shot before turning to face the wind. 



