824 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
passed. Both parents are very careful of their brood, 
and work diligently in providing them food. The young 
are in prime condition about November, and so well able 
to take care of themselves that the fowler has to use all 
his art to bag them. Many persons think that snipe are 
difficult to kill, but this is only true to a certain extent, 
for if one will walk down wind, and not shoot rapidly, 
but give the birds a start of twenty or thirty yards before 
firing—if they rise with ten yards or so—he will find 
that his bag at the end of the day will be much larger 
than if he had taken snap shots, and that he may score 
with both barrels, thus giving himself double snipes and 
a duplicate pleasure. The cause of this is readily appa- 
rent. When they fly about twenty or thirty yards, they 
settle into a straight course, whereas they dart hither and 
thither in the most eccentric manner previous to going 
that distance. Side shots are better and surer than the 
straight, especially if one is beating to the leeward. Ifa 
person is shooting over dogs, he cannot well beat down 
wind, as the animals must work to the windward or 
across wind, if they are to be of much use besides acting 
as retrievers. When the dogs point, it is advisable to 
get to their windward before flushing the bird, as the 
chances of grassing it are greater. Setters are better for 
this work than pointers. If snipe are abundant, large 
bags can be made in favorable weather, for it is nothing 
unusual for a market-hunter to average fifty couples a 
a day for a week or two, and sometimes more; but, should 
the weather be unpropitious, few birds are harder to kill, 
on account of their erratic habits, capricious character, 
and manner of soaring high and flushing at long dis- 
tances. When they first arrive from the South they are 
wild and unsteady, and keep constantly changing their 
haunts, as if no place suited them. They sometimes 
travel in wisps numbering twenty or more, then decrease 
to ‘‘ walks” of four or five. It is little use trying to pur- 
