* 90 AMERICAN GAME. 
Still, as extreme cold prevents it from obtaining sub- 
sistence, extreme heat would appear to be still less con- 
genial to its tastes or temperament; for, whereas it lingers 
in the north until autumnal frosts seal up the marshes 
and the soft stream margins against its probing bill, it 
flies from its winter quarters in the rice-fields of Carolina, 
and Georgia, and the farther morasses of Texas and New 
Mexico, the instant that opening spring admits of its 
return to the fresh meadows and pure rivulets of the 
north-east. 
The winter quarters of this bird, then, are fairly ascer- 
tained, ranging from Carolina southward until almost the 
northern limits of the Tropics; thence, so soon as the 
blue-bird begins to pipe in the apple-tree, the shad to 
appear in the rivers, the willow-buds to turn yellow, and 
the frogs to croak and chirrup, with us to the northward, 
the snipe is seen everywhere, hurrying, according to the 
progress of the season, singly, in whisps of ten or twelve, 
or in huge flights, ever, ever, northwardly. In Mary- 
land, in Delaware, in southern Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey, he is wont to appear from the 1st to the 20th of 
March ; in New York and New Jersey northward, from 
the 15th of March to the 20th of April, remaining for a 
longer or shorter period according to_the steadiness of 
the weather, the state of the ground as regards wet or 
drought, and the geniality of the season. In mild, soft, 
temperate, moist seasons, with a prevalence of westerly 
weather, he will linger with us into the lap of June; and 
