SNIPE. 15 



machine! Sufficient unto the shot is the sport thereof. But 

 notwithstanding all this, there is yet a pleasure in store, the 

 pleasure of reminiscence, the pleasure of recalling incidents 

 long gone by, of watching from the comfortable depths of a 

 cosy armchair, and through the curling wreaths of a 

 Virginian weed, the adventures by marsh and swamp which 

 memory brings up so vividly. There is the sea-wall just 

 as you found it on a certain China New Year holiday. On 

 the land side of it, there is a long stretch of watery waste 

 never more than a hundred j^ards wide, but extending out of 

 sight each way. Snipe are there by the score and they rise 

 singly, too, the second and the third often being so obliging 

 as to wait till new cartidges are in, and a move is being made 

 to pick up the first dropped bird. Then up goes another of 

 them, and so the bag grows heavier and anticipation keener. 

 Those which go off as if for good are sure to be found again 

 half a mile further on. Noon comes with its brilliant sun 

 and glorious warmth. One is glad to sit on the sunny side 

 of the wall, count the victims, and their tail feathers if any 

 doubt arises, and bask awhile. Tomorrow we will have a 

 repetition of the sport. But, alas, during the night the 

 inevitable north-wester comes down, and birds which today 

 would sit and watch you, whilst you stood and watched 

 them, are now as wild as March hares. 'Sea-ape' they go, 

 whilst you are yet fifty yards away, and fifty yards 

 is far too great an allowance to give to a winter snipe. 

 His fat and lazy friends of autumn and spring, which will 

 hardly flap out of your way before they go down again, may 

 be given ' law" to a liberal extent, but Scolopax vulgaris 

 when lively must be attended to at once, if he rises anywhere 

 near thirty yards. No. 8 is best calculated to bring him to 

 bag, though I have often found No. 6 in the left barrel use- 

 ful, especially when something bigger may get up. He is 

 not half so hard to kill, however, as the golden plover. Cir- 

 cumstances must decide how he is to be approached, down 

 wind if lying well, if not, up. When flighting, he offers 

 the best shooting in the world, if skill be counted, but the 

 pleasure, taken as it is in the dusk, is fleeting and uncertain. 

 He is then on business intent, going for the evening meal 

 which his very healthy digestion makes so necessary, and 

 generally travelling at express rate. If there is frost and he 

 is frozen out of his usual haunts, he will come boldly wherever 

 open water presents. I have recently seen two feeding within 

 39 ft. of the trams on the Avenue Paul Brunat. I have seen, 

 in crossing the Rockies, a snipe alight within 20 ft. of a 

 moving train. In the olden days, before Shanghai had 

 grown to its present size, the Racecourse was a very favourite 

 place on which snipe would drop in season, and legend tells 



