324 AMERICAN SNIPE. 



having perhaps been several times shot at, become extremely wary, and 

 are left to entice others to join them, so that another day's sport may be 

 obtained. It is not rare to find some of these birds in the immediate vi- 

 cinity of Charleston, when they are pursued by the younger gunners, and 

 sometimes by keen sportsmen. I have known eight or ten procured by 

 one person in a short time, between that city and the race-ground, which 

 is scarcely a mile distant. They are also abundant in the wet savannahs 

 in the Floridas, from which they retire a few weeks earlier than from 

 Louisiana and the Carolinas, where some remain vmtil the beginning of 

 April. During the whole of the winter months, these birds are observed 

 to ramble from one place to another, and a field which yesterday contained 

 a good number, has only a few to-day, and to-morrow may be quite de- 

 serted. But before the end of a week, there you will find them again, 

 as abundant as at first. They rarely visit salt waters, and never resort 

 to the interior of the woods. 



The flight of the Snipe while travelling to some distance, is performed 

 at a considerable elevation, by regular and quickly repeated beats of the 

 wings. Yet they do not appear as if pursuing a direct course, for every 

 now and then they deviate a little to either side. They pass over rapidly, 

 however, and are able to travel to a great distance in a short time. Their 

 migrations, although performed singly, or in small parties of a single fa- 

 mily, may be said to be in a manner continuous, as in the course of a few 

 days a whole section of country, in which none had been seen for several 

 months, becomes well supplied with them. When surprised by the sports- 

 man, or any other enemy, they usually rise at one spring, dash through 

 the air in a zig-zag course, a few feet from the ground, emit their cry 

 when about twenty yards distant, and at times continue to employ this 

 cunning mode of escape for sixty or seventy yards, after which they mount 

 into the air, and perform the rounds already described. I have found 

 the instant at which they utter their note of alarm the best for pulling 

 the trigger ; but almost every sportsman has his peculiar fancy, and many 

 are glad to kill them the best way they can ; for he who shoots thirty 

 snipes in succession, without missing one, is a good hand at any kind of 

 shooting. Sometimes the Snipe will squat with great pertinacity, and even 

 stand a pointer, while at other times it will not sufler either man or dog 

 to approach within fifty yards of it. This, however, depends much on 

 the state of the atmosphere. The finer and warmer the day, the easier I 

 have found it to get near them, and the smaller is the distance at which 



