THE OOLOGLST. 



71 



the head and tail begins to appear, and 

 nt the end of the fourth the mature plum- 

 age is attained and the birds are fully de- 

 veloped. 



Allhough this bird has been chosen as 

 the emblem of our nation, I think consid- 

 ering his cowardly nature, his filthy habit 

 of feeding on carrion, and robbing other 

 birds of their prey, that a much better 

 selection might have been made; and I be- 

 lieve that most of my brother oologists who 

 have had opportunities of observing him 

 in his native haunts will agree with me in 

 this opinion. H. C. C, Potsdam, N. Y. 



A Snipe Hunt. 



I noticed the article "IL" had in the 

 January number, and was much pleased 

 with it. Now I will relate a little snipe 

 hunt he and I had in the fall of 1887. 



One morning before daybreak, early in 

 the season, "P.." and myself met by ap- 

 pointment at a> boat house several miles 

 west of the city. We had agreed to go 

 snipe hunting on some favorable ground 

 recommended by a friend. Everything had 

 been arranged the day before, so all we did 

 was to unlock our boat and push off. We 

 made good headway at first, but as the 

 reeds became thicker our progress became 

 lower and we did not reach the snipe 

 grounds until after sunrise. 



As I stepped from the boat a snipe arose 

 about thirty yards to my right. Quickly 

 throwing the gun to my shoulder I emptied 

 both barrels, while he, althoiigh hard hit, 

 kept on at a 70-mile-an-hour speed. Soon 

 another snipe was flushed and three shells 

 emptied. I scored two misses, while "R. " 

 brought him down with the first barrel. 

 My chum said he- would work his way 

 along the northern shore, and that I had 

 better take the boat and pull for the south- 

 ern. Upon his advice I immediately acted. 

 Just as I reached the opposite shore, I heard 

 the crack, crack of his gun. Pulling the 

 boat well up out of water, I started through 

 the marsh hay parallel with "R." During 

 the half hour that followed, I flushed sev- 

 eral snipe, all within easy gunshot range, 



but as this was my first experience with 

 them, I succeeded in bagging only one. 

 Returning to the boat, I pulled across and 

 found my chum awaiting me. He had 

 bagged thirteen snipe and one woodcock. 

 This I consider remarkably good, consider- 

 ing the nature of the ground and being 

 without a dog. He said he had heard that 

 quail were plentiful in some old fields about 

 a quarter of a mile away, so we turned our 

 attention in that direction. After hunting 

 over these neglected fields for an hour or 

 two, I flushed a fine covey. "R." led off, 

 shooting his right and left barrels in rapid 

 succession and bringing one bird to bag. 

 With this kind of shooting I was perfectly 

 at home, and my right barrel brought two 

 birds to the ground, while the left I did not 

 shoot, for the birds pitched in some willows 

 before I had time to draw a bead and pull 

 the trigger. We followed them up and 

 after killing all we wanted, retraced our 

 steps to the river. 



We soon reached the boat and pushed off, 

 my chum taking the oars, while I took up 

 a position on the front seat, so as to get a 

 shot at any game that might appear. We 

 had hardly started when a large American 

 Bittern arose, but a charge of duck shot 

 caused him to turn a couple of summer- 

 saults and fall with a loud splash into the 

 water stone dead. 



Nothing more in the shape of game made 

 its appearance, so as we neared the boat 

 house I laid aside my gun and took up 

 •'E.. 's" Winchester. At this instant we 

 emerged from the reeds into open water 

 and almost upon a flock of butter-balls, 

 which arose in great confusion. Quick as a 

 flash, I had the rifle to my shoulder and 

 sent several balls flying after them, but not 

 being a dime-novel hero, who could hit a 

 five cent piece flung into the air every time 

 at sixty yards, I did not succeed in bringing 

 any down. We soon reached the boat 

 house, and after a long walk over a muddy 

 road reached home. This was about as 

 pleasant a little hunt as I ever had the for- 

 tune to take part in. J. C. W. , 



Detroit, Mich. 



