264 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



one may imagine that the heads of these two species would prove interesting subjects 

 to the anatomist. Snipe in confinement have been known to eat bread and 

 milk and cornmeal. 



Although the snipe's erratic ways of coming and going are proverbial, it is yet not 

 an easy matter to drive him away from a given place when he does not wish to go. 

 He is an obstinate little fellow, and when he has found a feeding ground that suits 

 him, chasing him about over it is not likely to make him leave. It is a common 

 experience to have a snipe get up wild before one and rise high in the air, as if 

 intending to go a great distance, and then, after flying in wide circles high above the 



FRoM DRAWING BY JAMES C. BEARD. 



A FAMILY OF WILSONS SNIPE, 



meadow to see it at length return and pitch down almost in the very spot from which 

 it rose. It is not likely to do this unless the gunner stands perfectly still until it has 

 alighted, and after its return a little time should be given it to begin to feed again, or 

 else it may rise once more and take its permanent departure. I recall an occasion 

 when I saw this attachment to locality exemplified at some well known snipe grounds 

 in Indiana, where, by good fortune, I found birds in great numbers. These grounds 

 were not very extensive, but the great number of snipe made the shooting puzzling. 

 We worked the marshes over two or three times until all the birds had gone, and then 

 my companion and I separated to explore the neighborhood in the two directions in 



