SNIPE, AND SNIPE-SHOOTING. 255 



others wait till they steady in their flight, and do good 

 shooting. 



Although most of their migrating is done at night, 

 they sometimes fly in dark weather. They can fre- 

 quently be heard passing overhead at night, as they 

 keep up the well-known cry of "scaipe, scaipe." The 

 drumming, as it is called, which is so often referred to by 

 other writers and sportsmen, is a thing I have never seen 

 them do. Neither have I ever heard them ' 'chuckle like 

 laying hens," nor seen them "perch uponfences or trees." 

 I can not doubt their doing these things, as the facts are 

 too well substantiated to adndt of doubt, and it is well 

 known that these are habits of the mating and breeding 

 season. 



I sometimes wonder how many sportsmen there are 

 who have had the good fortune to observe a migrating 

 flock of snipe coming onto the meadows. I have had 

 the good luck to see it twice in my experience — once in 

 the spring and once in autumn. By mere chance, it hap- 

 pened, on both occasions, that I was out without a gun, 

 merely giving my setters a race. It also happened that 

 both times the birds came in on the same meadow. It 

 was one of some twenty acres of ground, and one which 

 during the summer was dry, and from which hay was cut. 

 Though it was only about a mile from home, there were 

 no birds to be found on my return with my gun, though 

 to get it I was, in neither instance, absent over three- 

 quarters of an hour; nor could I find any birds on the 

 adjacent meadows. They had dropped in only for a little 

 rest. 



In boring for their food, snipe make holes in the mud 

 which look as if a thin pencil had been pushed into the 

 ground. You may, however, find many of these borings, 

 yet find no birds, they having changed their quarters; 

 but should you see the droppings of the birds where the' 



