250 MANUAL FOE YOUNG SPOBTSMEN. 



grounds only for a few days at intervals, sport or no sport 

 is little more than a throw of the dice, or a matter of 

 guess-work, so capricious and erratic are the habits of the 

 bird. 



The best indications I know of a probability of good 

 sport, when the markets show that snipe are in season — 

 and they alone do show it beyond the possibility of error — ■ 

 are the clearing up of a cold north-east storm into soft 

 genial weather, the commencement of south-westerly 

 breezes, and the subsidence of the waters, if they have 

 been out over the lowlands, the frost bemg, of course, 

 entirely out of the ground. 



Such a combination of circumstances exactly at the 

 nick of time gives good promise of sport ; but if it happen 

 too late, it will be of no avail, for the birds will have gone 

 onward, or if it fall early, and be immediately succeeded 

 and interchanged with wild or frosty weather, the snipe 

 will become tricky, and the shooting more than ever casual 

 and beyond calculation. 



At times, in the spring, they will lie by day scattered 

 singly all over the high, dry uplands, in fallow fields, bare 

 pastures, even in wood-sides, descending only at night to 

 feed on the marshes, where next morning the sportsman 

 will find the droppings and borings of an innumerable 

 host, but not a feather. When such is the case, pursuit is 

 useless. There is nothing for it but to go home. 



Again, in cold blowy weather, with snow squalls, they 

 will lie in bushy covert, among briers and alder brakes, 

 where there are springs of water and muddy pools, or 

 vlies, as they are called by the Dutch settlers; and on 



