134 FIELD SHOOTING. 



arrive on the river-bottoms by the first of March 

 in an early spring, but much depends upon the 

 forwardness of the season and the state of the 

 weather. The snipe need not be looked for until 

 the frost is quite out of the ground, no matter 

 how genial and pleasant the days may be. The 

 reason seems to be plain. As long as there is 

 frost in the ground the worms and larvae of in- 

 sects upon which snipe feed are underneath the 

 frozen strata, and cannot be found in the soft mud 

 of the surface. In Illinois and Northern Indiana the 

 frost holds in the ground much longer than in South- 

 ern Kentucky. It penetrates a good deal deeper, 

 and the spring is more backward than in the last- 

 named region. Hence the snipe do not come to 

 the Calumet, the Winnebago Swamp, the Sanga- 

 mon, and the other favorite haunts which it fre- 

 quents in Illinois, until nearly a month after they 

 have appeared at Columbus. When they first 

 arrive, the birds are thin and wild, and do not 

 lie well. In a short time, however, they get very 

 fat and become lazy. I find that in New Jersey 

 the fall snipe-shooting is the best, and that the 

 birds tarry so short a time in the spring that 

 sometimes there is scarcely any spring snipe-shoot- 

 ing at all. Now, with us the reverse of this is 



