1G6 



FIELD SHOOTING. 



over the meadows and pastures, in hopes to get 

 near enough for a shot. 



Sand-snipe and grass snipe (so-called in the 

 West) are not snipe, but some sorts of tatlers 

 or sand-pipers. They resemble the plover, but 

 are smaller, being only about the size of a true 

 snipe. The sand-snipe has a whitish breast; the 

 grass-snipe is a gray bird. They come about the 

 same time as golden plover and curlew, and in 

 pretty large flocks. In dry seasons these flocks 

 appear to unite, two or three making but one, 

 and then they are in very large numbers together. 

 They are nice, plump birds, as good to eat as 

 plover, and easy to get at. However, good as they 

 are, few people shoot them, and it is easy enough 

 to get within range of a flock of them. They 

 frequent marshy ground, such as the true snipe 

 likes. Unlike the latter, however, they fly in 

 flocks, and settle down, clustered together, on the 

 muddy edges of sloughs and little water-holes, 

 which they see while crossing the prairie on the 

 wing. Once, when I was out shooting golden plo- 

 ver and curlew, 1 saw a great flock of these 

 ■smaller birds in a marshy spot near a little pond. 

 1 thought they were plover, but as I neared them 

 the flock rose, and then I saw it was a vast col- 



