144 FIEiLto SHOOTING. 



In snipe- shooting in the West along sloughs 

 or wet swales, in the prairie or corn-fields, there 

 should he two guns in company, one on each side 

 of the slough or swale. Your companion will com- 

 monly he willing that you shall take either side 

 you choose, as few men know that it makes any 

 difference. But it makes a Very material differ- 

 ence when the wind i3 Mowing across, or nearly 

 across, the slough, and if you take the windward 

 side you will have the most shots. 1 have always 

 done so, and have often killed two or three snipe 

 to one killed by my companion. The reason is 

 simply this ; the snipe fly lip-wind, and those which 

 rise on the leeward side of the slough cross it to 

 windward, while none of those which get up on 

 the latter side fly to leeward. 



When the snipe first come on in the spring, 

 it is often primarily discovered by a certain habit 

 they have of hovering in the air of nights, and 

 making a kind of humming noise with their wings, 

 as they fall from a height. I have often been out 

 duck-shooting at night at that season of the year, 

 and, hearing this noise in the air, have become aware 

 that the snipe had arrived from the south. Before 

 they leave for the north to breed they often do 

 the same thing by clay, and it is only when in the 



