SEASON FOR THE SPORT. 295 



or three guns, together with almost as many of other birds, 

 and a hare or two also. 



I knew a man, a long-legged Scot in the Civil Service, 

 whose invariable custom was to go out after snipe on the 

 12th of August every year (St. Grouse's day), and to pick 

 up two, three, or four early birds. I do not care to go out 

 myself before the first week of September, by which time 

 five or six couple may grace the stick after as many hours 

 toiling through the rice fields ; nor do I care to wet my boots 

 for less. I have shot as many as eleven and a-half couple on 

 the 20th of August, in two or three hours of the afternoon, 

 near Bholagunge, at the southern base of the Khassia hills, 

 and have remarked that snipe appear earlier and leave later 

 in Sylhet than elsewhere in Bengal ; and thus I have made a 

 good bag behind the Civil Station of that name late in April 

 after some heavy showers had fallen and moistened tht 

 ground. 



On their first arrival in Bengal, from their distant breed- 

 ing grounds in the north, about the middle of August, the 

 birds are, as might be naturally expected, poor and thin ; but 

 two or three weeks in the Bengal paddy-fields do wonders, 

 so that by the middle of September, snipe are generally quite 

 plump. 



It is useless to seek snipe on ground that feels hard under 

 foot, no matter whether the young rice or the weeds growing 

 upon it look most inviting, and water lies upon it an inch 

 or two deep ; and the same may be said of ground covered 

 by fresh rain-water. The experienced sportsman will at once 

 know by the softness of the soil under foot whether he is 

 on suitable ground. On excessively hot days, snipe desert 

 before noon the moist grass and paddy-fields for the shelter 

 of bushes, scrub or high cultivation, such as jute, hemp, or 

 sugar-cane ; in stormy weather they do the same, and may 

 then be seen in gardens and grounds round houses within the 

 station itself. As the season advances, they will resort in the 

 evening to the borders of ponds, ditches, and other stagnant 

 water, and may then be easily detected, trying to conceal 



