254 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



that they are found in such great numbers, and so easily. 

 It is not by any means an uncommon thing for a good shot 

 to Ttill from fifty to 100 birds in a day. Tastes differ, 

 and to me the working of the dogs, and not the size of the 

 bag, is the measure of the sport, and, for that reason, 

 I would rather kill twenty birds over a brace of fast, 

 well-trained, keen-nosed setters or pointers than 200 with 

 a mere retriever. Tastes also differ as to the edible 

 qualities of game; but, in the writer's estimation, no bird 

 surpasses the snipe as a table delicacy. 



During the spring flight, snipe do not resort only to 

 the meadows. Wet upland pastures, corn-stubbles, the 

 sides of ditches, and wet spots on fields of upstanding 

 winter wheat or rye, will be found to be frequented by 

 them. In cold, windy weather, they resort to open, wet 

 woodlands, alder and willow thickets, or places on the 

 marshes protected from the wind by tall rushes. 



It is a mistake for the novice to suppose that every 

 marsh is good ground for snipe. If the soil is of a sour 

 nature, the worms they delight in will not be found 

 there, and neither will the birds. They never come in 

 the spring till the frost is well out of the ground, so that 

 their feed will be plentiful, and easily reached; and 

 instinct teaches them that warm spring rains have a 

 tendency to bring about the proper conditions. 



On their first coming, they are thin and worn down, 

 but, if they be undisturbed, and feed be plentiful, they 

 soon become fat and lazy in bright still weather. The 

 feed must be plentiful indeed, for a snipe vriH. consume 

 from three to four times his weight of food in a day. 

 Beyond having to look for them in places to which they 

 rarely resort in autumn — such places as I have named — the 

 shooting of them differs in nowise from that in atitumn. 



How best to shoot them is a mooted point. I always 

 take them the instant they flush, unless very close by; 



