FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 265 



which the birds had chiefly disappeared. I proceeded through a piece of dry wood- 

 land, thinking that perhaps beyond it there might be another marsh. To my aston- 

 ishment, soon after I had entered the woods, snipe began to rise about me in all 

 directions. There must have been hundreds there. My companion crossed a high 

 cultivated hill to see if beyond that there was a slough. When he reached the top of 

 the hill, where there was a dry, potato lot, snipe rose from every furrow that he passed, 

 and whirling about, went back to the marsh we had just been shooting on. So it 

 seems that, simple though he is thought to be, the snipe is wise enough, when he is 

 much harried on a favorite feeding ground, to go away to some place where he would 

 never be looked for, and there await the departure of the disturber of his peace. 



In these days when snipe are scarce and hard to find, a good dog is sometimes 

 very useful in saving much laborious walking to the gunner, and in retrieving most of 

 the birds that he may kill. Moreover, there is no more beautiful place to see dogs 

 work than the open meadows where snipe are usually found. On the other hand, 

 they often wholly decline to lie to a dog, getting up wild before him, and so much 

 further from the gun than they otherwise would; or if they are very numerous, they 

 puzzle and confound the dogs by their numbers and the fact that they have passed 

 over the ground in all directions. On the whole, a dog is less useful in snipe shooting 

 than in the pursuit of any other bird. Yet there are times when the snipe are fat and 

 lazy and lie well, when a dog is very much needed. Then they will let you pass 

 within a few feet of them without rising, and it is impossible to see them unless they 

 move. The subject of protective coloring is familiar to the sportsman, for we all know 

 how hard it is to see a quail or a grouse crouched in grass or weeds before the 

 dog's nose, a night hawk sitting on the rock, or a deer in the woods or lying on a bare, 

 rocky hillside, unless it moves. Few birds offer better examples of protective coloring 

 than the snipe ; its blacks, browns, chestnuts and buffs harmonizing wonderfully well 

 with the yellow grass among which it lives, and the shadows and openings beneath 

 the grass. So true is this that even when looked at directly the snipe is not likely to 

 be seen on the ground except by chance. I once saw one of these birds feeding along 

 the edge of a little slough on the bare black mud where his color and his motion 

 caught my eye at once. A moment later the snipe saw me, and walked quickly to the 

 side of a small tuft of grass, where it squatted close b side the grass stems, against 

 which it could hardly be detected. I took my eye from it two or three times, and on 

 looking at it again was obliged really to search for it before I could make out the 

 bird's outline. Of course as my eye became more familiar with the spot and with the 

 situation of the bird I found it more and more easily each time. 



This protective coloring makes it often difficult to see a dead snipe lying on the 

 ground, unless it has been closely marked down, or has fallen on its back so that the 



