OF NEW ENGLAND. 411 
they may usually be marked down with accuracy, as they throw 
up their wings to alight, and they should then, as always, be 
approached down wind, no matter how great a detour is neces- 
sary. By a study of their habits the sportsman will soon find 
upon what days and in what places they may be most easily 
and successfully shot. More may generally be killed by a vigor- 
ous walker without a dog than with one, if one prefers birds to 
pleasure. As to the shooting, as in all shooting on the wing, 
you cannot shoot too quickly or too deliberately ; when to fire 
quickly and when deliberately is to be Iearned by practice only. 
As for a precise rule, an old friend used to say: ‘Pull, as soon 
as the gun touches the shoulder, if not sooner.” There is 
humor .in all wisdom, but perhaps an undue proportion in this 
advice for practical use. All that can be said is: ‘‘Shoot as 
soon as you know that the gun is right; the sooner, the better.” 
After blowing a few birds to pieces, you will learn how far to 
modify this rule. Many birds will be missed by being under- 
shot, and many by not being shot at well ahead. Some sports- 
man use number 8 shot; some number 12 and intermediate 
sizes. Number nine does very well. 
Autumn is the proper season for Snipe-shooting, both be- 
cause the birds are then more certainly found and because they 
are then very delicious morsels for the table. With us, when 
théy arrive in spring, they are lean, dry, and sinewy, from long 
and hard exercise; the period of breeding has already begun, 
and well-developed eggs may often be found in the females. 
There is as much difference between the rich, tender, and juicy 
meat of the well-fed, lazy, autumn bird, and the meagre, dry, 
and sinewy flesh of the spring traveler, as between that of a 
* stall-fed ox and that of a dray-horse. Yet there are many to 
whose coarse palates no difference appears. No doubt, it is 
hard to relinquish all field-sports in the spring; without such 
relief the period of inaction is long and tedious; one’s fingers 
itch for the trigger. Yet spring Snipe-shooting is a sorry 
pastime, and a wasteful one, unworthy of the true sportsman. 
(d). The notes of the Snipe are not susceptible of satisfac- 
tory description ; their common note being a peculiar squeak, 
while their extraordinary love-note is usually called “bleating.” 
