be a! 
AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
feeding ground will fattenthem. The best period in the 
spring is at the time when the frogs are most noisy, and 
the grass beginning to grow, and they may be hunted 
either with or without dogs. Ifthe weather is windy you 
must hunt with the wind, and when you spring a snipe it 
doubles immediately and flies by you, by which you will 
haye across shot. In this kind of weather they are not 
so shy as in still weather, for in the latter they will fre- 
quently rise out of reach, especially if hunted much. You 
must at all times reserve your fire until the bird over- 
comes its zigzag flight, which it usually does within 
twenty yards; and by using fine shot, say No. 8 or 9, you 
will hardly fail to kill at that distance. The fall birds, 
however, I think are best; they are chiefly young, and of 
course tender; but in the spring they are all old, and being 
on their flight north to incubate, may be considered ra- 
ther out of season. For further information on this head, 
I will refer the reader to pages 87 and 97 of Vol. I. of 
this werk, under Woodcock and Snipe Shooting. 
With the exception of the wild pigeon, I think there is 
no bird that describes so great a line of flight as the snipe; 
it penetrates the north so far to incubate, that no one can 
tell the precise place where it raises its young. Who 
has ever seen a snipe’s nest?””? is an unanswered ques- 
tion often propounded, which leaves a mystery about 
the parental duties of the bird. Snipes are seattered not 
only oyer the whole continent of America, but through- 
out Europe and other parts of the world, and wherever 
there is civilization, they are objects of pursuit among 
sportsmen. In March, this bird is very abundant in the 
southern states of this country; the rice grounds are its 
delight, and at that time numbers may be found there, 
and it is not uncommon for those who shoot well, to kill 
from fifty to an hundred in a single day. In the middle 
and northern states they are not so plentiful, and the 
sportsmen of these places are contented with the success 
of bagging twenty or thirty in a day; there are parts, 
however, in which, at times, they are found in num- 
bers, but the uncertainty even of those places af- 
fording much sport, renders it unnecessary now to point 
them out. Ie 
KANGUROO HUNTING. 
Tue Kanguroo is naturally a timid animal, and flies at 
the approach of man. In New-Holland this creature is 
hunted with greyhounds, and affords an agreeable pastime 
to the settlers. It does not run like other quadrupeds, 
but progresses by quick, repeated bounds, of more than 
Wa 
257 
twenty feet, and no obstacle of nine or ten feet can ob- 
struct its flight, for it will leap oyer any object of that 
height with the greatest ease. It is hunted silently, for it 
has surprising quickness of hearing. When a dog finds 
his game, the chase begins, the Kanguroo hopping, and 
the dog running at his full speed; so that in a thickly- 
wooded country like New-Holland they are quickly 
out of view. 
The following account of Kanguroo hunting is taken 
from Dawson’s Present State of Australia:— 
«<The country on our right consisted of high hills, 
thickly timbered; that on the left, on the opposite side of 
the river, was a rich and thinly timbered country. A low 
and fertile flat meadow there skirted the river, and at the 
extremity of the flat the hills gradually arose with a gen- 
tle slope, covered with vyerdure, upon which an immense 
herd of Kanguroos was feeding. I crossed over with Maty 
Bill and a brace of dogs, leaving the party to proceed on 
their route. The moment we had crossed, the Kangu- 
roos moved off, It is extremely curious to see the man- 
ner in which a large herd of these animals jump before 
you. It has often been asserted in England that they 
make use of their tails to spring from you when they are 
pursued: this is not correct. Their tails never touch the 
ground when they move, except when they are on their 
feed, or at play: and the faster they run or jump, the 
higher they carry them. The male Kanguroos were 
called, by the natives, old men, ‘wool man;’ and the 
females, young ladies, ‘young liddy.’” The males are 
not so swift as the females; and the natives, in wet seasons, 
occasionally run the former down when very large, their 
weight causing them to sink in the wet ground, and thus 
to become tired. They frequently, however, make up 
for this disadvantage, by fierceness and cunning, when 
attacked either by men or dogs; and it is exceedingly 
difficult for a brace of the best dogs to killa ‘ corbon wool 
man.’ When they can, they will hug a dog ora man as a 
bear would do; and as they are armed with long sharp 
claws, they not unfrequently let a dog’s entrails out, or 
otherwise lacerate him in the most dreadful manner, sit- 
ting all the while on their haunches, hugging and scratch- 
ing with determined fury. Young dogs, that are fierce 
and of good bottom, are almost sure to be sacrificed, if 
allowed to run at these ‘old men,’ before they have ac- 
quired some experience with smaller ones. After having 
been once or twice wounded, they get pretty cunning; 
and very few dogs will attack a ‘ wool man,’ when they 
are away from their keepers: their practice is to keep the 
enemy at bay, by running round, and barking at him, till 
some persons come up, when, either with large sticks or 
pistols, and the aid of the dogs, he is finally despatched, 
