“THE AMERICAN SNIPE. : 93 
birds and old together, full grown and in fine condition, 
begin to reappear in the marshes of Quebec and its vicin- 
ity, which may be said to be the extremest northern point 
from which we have continuous and authentic annual 
information of their appearance. At that time the 
slaughter of the snipe on the marshes of Chateau Richer, 
and of the islands farther down the St. Lawrence, is pro- 
digious. There they linger until the frosts become so 
severe as to drive them from their feeding-grounds, 
which generally takes place early in September, from 
which time, throughout that month, all October, and a 
portion—more or less according to the season—of No- 
vember, and even December, every likely swamp, mo- 
rass, and feeding-ground of Canada West, of the western, 
midland, and eastern states, from which they are not 
persecuted and banished by the incessant banging of 
pot-hunters and idle village boys, swarms with them, in 
quantities sufficient to afford sport to hundreds, and a 
delicacy io thousands of our inhabitants, if they were 
protected from useless and unmeaning persecution, by 
which alone they are prevented from being as numerous 
among us as at any former period. 
For I am well assured, that—unlike the woodcock, 
which, breeding in our midst, and dwelling with us for 
months at a time, is annually slaughtered while breeding, 
hatching, or immature, and is thus in rapid progress 
towards extirpation—the snipe, when unmolested in its 
breeding-grounds, is not diminished in its numerical pro- 
