SNIPE, AND SNIPE-SHOOTING. 253 



I had flushed the old bird on the 4th of the preceding 

 July. They were the fattest snipe I ever saw; for, to use 

 a common expression, they were "just like lumps of 

 butter." Neither of them could fly more than 100 yards 

 at a stretch, and their feathers were so much lighter in 

 color than that of an adult bird, that I did not recognize 

 them for snipe when they flushed, or I would not have 

 shot at them. Coupling their inability to fly far with 

 the fact of their exceeding fatness, it is fair to say that 

 they were bred in the immediate vicinity. Coupling 

 these two facts with the previous one of my flushing an 

 old bird from so near by, only six or eight weeks earlier 

 in the season, I think it will be admitted that I have a 

 right to think that those birds all belonged to one family, 

 and that the young were hatched on those meadows. 

 Furthermore, I worked over those meadows with my 

 dogs two or three times a week thereafter, and I find, 

 by reference to my shooting-notes, that the autumn flight 

 of snipe did not begin to be seen, in that year, till October 

 8th, which was within a few days of being one month later. 



The earliest date on which I have ever shot snipe in 

 spring was on the 24th of February, 1866; yet the next 

 year my first birds were killed on the 28th of March. 

 I have shot them so late as the 12th of December, and it 

 is not an uncommon thing for them to winter quite far 

 north. We should hear of it far oftener than we do, but 

 that sportsmen, during autumn, turn their attention to 

 larger game. 



Sportsmen of the West and Southwest are somewhat 

 excusable for wishing to shoot them in spring, since in 

 those sections they are frequently driven off by the dry- 

 ness of the grounds in the autumn, and if they were not 

 shot during the spring flight, they would not be found 

 at all. That they are shot there almost entirely without 

 the aid of dogs, other than retrievers, is due to the fact 



