SEA-BIRDS AMD WADERS 
rough uncultivated land bordering these the Snipe are 
extremely plentiful, enormous numbers often being shot in a 
day. One morning early in NovcmbtT. t bagj^^a^d thirty- 
five couple by mid-day, and had quite as good sport on other 
occasions, but during the season of 1S79, which was an 
exceptionally good one, the birds simply swarming, far larger 
bags were made, an oflicer of my regiment having bagged 
fifty-six couples to his own gun on one day, and fifty-four on 
another. But this represents good shooting; for it must not 
be imagined that the birds can be knocked down with a stick. 
Far from it, anything over twenty couple means really straight 
shooting and hard work, as the walking is bad and the heat 
intense." 
[So far as Singapore is concerned the palmy days of snipe 
shooting are, alas, it is to be feared, gone: the increase of 
population and the drainage of low-lying water-logged ground 
have restricted its suitable feeding-places: and though a few 
may still be found from autumn to spring in likely spots one 
can no longer pick up two or three couple every morning on 
what is now the Sepoy Lines Golf course or fill your carrier 
along the bottoms by the Alexandra Barracks; as the giants 
of the old days actually did. Snipe shooting in the Island 
cannot be dismissed without reference to the privately 
preserved snipe-bog on the Perseverance Estate just beyond 
the village of Payar Lehar and only a few miles out of town: 
the shooting over this marsh land has for very many years 
remained under the control of a well-known and highly 
respected firm in the city and has been shot scientifically and 
carefully: their game book — if in existence— would, if 
published, surprise readers by the size of the bags: but of late 
years and particularly since the erection on the property of 
the towering wireless installation the birds seem to have much 
decreased in number and whereas a total of over fifty couple 
UE^ed to be quite an ordinary result for a morning's outing that 
is not the case novv-a-days.^ — J. A. S, B.] 
[81] 
