THE COMMON OR FANTAIL SNIPE. 363° 
and generally, that just conclusions can only be arrived at in 
this matter, after analysing a large body of facts collected all 
over the country, in the light of the various seasonal conditions 
under which they occurred. 
The Common Snipe is eminently gregarious, and, like the 
Pintail, it arrives and departs ex masse. True that early and 
late in the season, single birds or couples are often met with, 
and that this is common enough even in the height of the 
season, in localities furnishing little cover or scanty nutriment ; 
but where these are abundant, and Snipe are z7, you invariably 
find several in the same locality. Not that when feeding, or 
rising when disturbed, they mass in flocks like Ruffs and 
Reeves or Sand-pipers. On the contrary, although, when wild, 
they may rise in whisps and occasionally two, three, or four may 
be flushed from the same spot, where all must have been feed- 
ing together, as a rule they feed, no matter how numerous they 
be, a few yards apart, and rise independently of each other. 
You find them in Upper India, in every swamp or marsh on 
the margins of ponds, lakes and rivers, wherever there is a 
more or less muddy foreshore protected by low grass rush or 
reed. Of all things they seem to love a kind of rush with a cir- 
cular stem (Scirpus carinatus, I think) which is common 
about the edges of ponds and jhils in the North-West Provinces, 
and which isa sure find for them. In the heat of the day, 
where urher and similar crops run down to near the water’s 
edge, alongside some jhil, you will often find many Snipe in 
these ;and when a good deal shot at, especially about mid-day 
in bright hot weather, they will constantly drop in young wheat 
and the like. 
One peculiarity of the Snipe is correctly pointed out by 
Mr. Reid. He says: “Although Snipe frequent wet places 
they never, when resting, allow their breasts to be in con- 
tact with water. Where the water is therefore at all general— 
no matter how shallow it may be—it is hopeless to expect these 
birds to lie close; this is only possible where suitable resting 
places are abundant.” 
But true as this is, you will constantly, at mid-day, find num- 
bers of Snipe resting on thin layers of water weed, half a mile 
away from any firm dry land, floating in water several feet in 
depth. In such situations, softly and silently punted from one 
weed bed to another, in a stable flat-bottomed boat, you may 
enjoy perhaps the best Snipe-shooting in the world. Each 
little patch contains two or three Snipe, which only rise when 
the prow grates on the edges of the floating mass. The birds 
when shot all drop in the water; any that are missed drop ona 
neighbouring patch, and without the smallest exertion, with- 
out soiling your boots even, you may thus shoot in some large 
jhils, from II A.M. to 3 P.M., almost as rapidly as you could load 
and fire in muzzle-loading days. 
————————eEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEEeEeEeEeEeEeEE>————EEE7~ 
