SNIPE. 57 



mediately the splash on the wet ground is heard, for the 

 Snipe, when it means to alight, drops itself down like a fall- 

 ing stone. All moist, boggy, and swampy meadows, inter- 

 sected with drains, ditches, hollows or broken ground, banks 

 of rivers, ponds, or canals, suit the taste and habits of the 

 Snipe. Where the grass is long enough for cover, or where 

 decayed flags and rushes abound, the Snipe generally remains 

 concealed during the day, but where these wet places are 

 only covered by short vegetation, and afford no shelter, there 

 is not much chance of finding these travellers. 



When frost sets in sufficiently to close the water, the 

 Snipe resorts to commons where the vegetation shelters the 

 springy bogs from being entirely frozen over. During 

 boisterous weather, the Snipe resorts to the shelter of stumps 

 and underwood along ditches and pools, and to furze-covered 

 commons. When still thaw-weather sets in, after a long 

 frost, there is hardly a spot among its favourite localities 

 where the Snipe is not to be found, and consequently a day 

 when the snow melts, and the ground is what we should call 

 exceedingly uninviting to walk out, is most excellent for 

 going out Snipe-shooting. Boggy ground, which only ap- 

 pears as if it would bear a person, but which actually fails 

 even under the weight of a dog, is the most proper resting- 

 place of Snipes, but as such places cannot generally be 

 traversed, the above-named localities are the most advisable 

 for a sportsman to go in search of. In the spring of the 

 year the Snipes come to us with a southerly wind, and in 

 the autumn with a northerly, north-easterly, or north- 

 westerly wind. 



It is very well for the sportsman that the Snipe is so 

 tender that the least thing brings it to the ground ; and 

 although this is well-known, we will give a proof of it, by 

 the fact, that when out Snipe-shooting in Holland, with a 



