FOREST and stream* I 
For Forest and Stream. 
SNIPE ATND SNIPE SHOOTING— No. 3. 
(9 * — - 
T HE arrival of tlie Wilson’s snipe with us in the Spring 
is very uncertain, and depends entirely upon the 
state of the season. If, after a cold and blustering Win- \ 
ter, March suddenly opens warm and genial, which is sel- 
dom the case, and the frost is drawn from the ground by 
the sun’s rajs, we may expect the bird soon to be on our 
meadows; but not often does he reach us before the mid- 
dle of the month, and then in small numbers, uneasy in 
its habits, and scarcely lying to the dog. By the last of 
March, or the 1st of April, the great flight of birds arrives 
from the Southern States, and, like the woodcock, the 
prevalence of a warm rain appears to be chosen for the 
migration. The average appearance of the snipe from 
Delaware eastward may, in favorable seasons, be set down 
as about April 1st, but frequently, when the Spring is late, 
and Winter has lingered into April, we find it passing hur- 
riedly northward, scarcely visiting our meadows, and di- 
recting its flight to its breeding grounds. We have always 
thought the snipe, after tarrying with us until May, are 
mated, and leave us in pairs ready to begin nesting. In 
fact, we have on several ocasions killed and found in them 
fully formed eggs as ealy as the 20th of April, and for this 
reason oppose the shooting of snipe during their Spring 
passage northward. 
On their return from the North with their young, they 
pay us a visit before moving South, reaching us in Septem- 
ber and October, the first cool weather having prompted 
them to seek winter quarters, making their autumnal mi- 
grations southward in stages in advance of hard freezing, 
stopping and resting on the route. 
On our meadows of the Eastern and Middle States, where 
snipe are comparatively rare, a good dog, thoroughly un- 
derstanding his business in this particular, is invaluable; 
but in some portions of the Southern and Western country 
the bird is so numerous that a setter or pointer is of verv 
little use, unless he be kept at heel and used as a retriever. 
But we confess our own shooting is to us more enjoyable 
when fewer are bagged, and the working of a well bred 
and trained setter is added to the pleasure. 
The snipe lies best to the dog on warm, sunny days, 
when gentle winds are blowing, and if feeding in high 
tussock meadows will not take flight until almost trodden 
upon. But during blustery weather, especially if the wind 
is from the northeast, they are very loath to allow even the 
most steady dog to come within thirty or forty yards of 
them. This is more noticeable in the Spring, when the 
birds have first arrived, and are in whisps or bunches, than 
in Autumn, when they appear to have made up their minds 
to stay' for awhile previous to moving southward. 
The snipe is noticeably the most difficult game we have 
to kill, although we have seen only medium quail shots 
that were really brilliant in their shooting on the meadows; 
but we also noticed that such persons resided adjacent to 
, good snipe grounds, and devoted much more time to it 
j than to any other sport. 
Beating for snipe with the wind in one’s back has been 
always advised by experts, as the bird invariably rises 
against wind, and flies at an angle towards you, either to 
the right or left, thus presenting a more easy shot than 
when going straightaway in a zig zag course. Sometimes, 
however, on account of the many r ditch drains that inter- 
rupt us in our tramps over the meadows, we cannot find it 
as convenient by far to take the wind at our backs, and 
are compelled to breast it; but we should bear in mind 
that far better chances are given to kill if the advice is 
carried out, and always endeavor to follow it. 
Snipe not unfrequently take to swampy thickets of black 
alder, and what are known as “willow gardens,” with 
springy bottoms, in the Spring for shelter and food, when, 
after their arrival from the South, the country is visited 
with a snow squall and a touch of the past Winter. We 
have on two occasions found them in such localities lying 
like stones, and making capital shooting, and fully as ex- 
pert in twisting their way through the sprouts and alders 
as their larger cousin, the woodcock. 
The snipe remains with us frequently as late as the latter 
! part of November, and on occasion, while quail shooting 
in the State of Delaware, we shot them on the 13tli of 
December, but the weather during that month and the one 
previous had beeu remarkably open and mild, and we 
doubt not the bird could have been met with on the same 
ground a week after. We made two memoranda that sea- 
son, and they appear on reference — “Shot five Wilson 
snipe on 13th December.” “Shot one well conditioned 
woodcock on the 31st of December.” 
We noticed in the report of the proceedings of the Na- 
tional Sportsmen’s Convention, held at Niagara on the 9th 
of September, that it was urged that the Spring shooting 
of woodcock, snipe, and “bay birds,” during their sojourn 
in the Middle and Eastern States, previous to their moving 
farther North, for the purpose of breeding, should be 
abolished. Nothing could more benefit the sportsman. 
Recollect, every pair of birds thus killed in the Spring- 
makes just three or four less in the Autumn. 
In spite of being considered as given to chronic growl- 
ing, we shall continue to urge, as we have always done, 
the cessation of the murderous and unsportsmanlike kill- 
ing of our game birds of passage on their journeys toward 
their nesting ground, albeit they may not be at the time 
paired, knowing well the time has arrived when the fast 
disappearance of all game demands it, and we call on all 
sportsmen to put aside that little selfishness we all are en- 
dowed with, and have such laws passed as will benefit the 
sporting fraternity of every State. 
Within our own recollection, snipe ten years ago were fat- 
more numerous at Pine Brook, N. J., and other meadows 
of that neighborhood, and certainly in far greater quanities 
on the feeding grounds bordering the Delaware and Schuyl- 
kill rivers near Philadelphia. Then we could be tolerably 
certain about making a bag; now we more frequently see 
none than to get shots at any. The steady destruction of 
the source of supply in the Spring has brought this about; 
nothing else. The meadows have not changed, and food is 
just as abundant. 
A fellow sportsman, who had always been able to find 
game enough in the neighborhood of his city home until 
within a few years, made the remark to me that he found 
it did not pay to keep a setter or pointer, for birds were 
too scarce even to train upon, and that he intended devot- 
ing his attention to the little “Bassett” for slow chasing of 
the rabbit, feeling this was all that remained. Homo. 
