238 2RAIRIE AND FOREST. 
many will flush almost at your feet. When wild, their 
flights are long and rapid; when not so, they droop their 
wings, and frequently alight before a hundred yards have 
been traversed. However, this does not apply to the whole 
day; for toward sunset, possibly from having by that time 
digested their last night’s meal—for they feed principally 
by night—they invariably become wild, and more difficult 
of approach. To be successful in making a heavy bag of 
snipe, there is a rule which may be beneficial to the tyro to 
remember, viz., always to hunt down wind, or as much so 
as possible, provided always that dogs are not used. The 
stronger the breeze, the more necessity for doing so; the 
reason being, that invariably snipe fly against the wind, and 
being flushed by your advancing on them from windward, 
the birds will wheel round to the right or left, and present. 
an easy cross-shot, in their determination to pursue the de- 
sired direction. 
The migration of this snipe, as well as of the American 
woodcock, is peculiar: all appear to act independently of 
the other. Dozens may be seen to pass or light near you 
in the space of a few minutes, yet each bird is alone. Many 
an evening, after sunset, have I watched their coming, yet 
never saw two or more together. These journeys take 
place before sunrise and after sunset. This scattered mode 
of traveling, and the hour at which it takes place, are 
doubtless the reasons that none but close observers of na- 
ture witness their arrival. By the end of May the migra- 
tion of this snipe has ceased, and their summer-quarters 
are reached, which are, as previously stated, principally 
north of the great lakes and the St. Lawrence; although 
not a few spend the summer in Nova Scotia, New Bruns- 
wick, and Maine. Early in June they commence laying 
their eggs, four in number, in a nest of the most primitive 
construction, it being simply an indentation in some trifling 
