UPLAND SHOOTING. 
163 
once, especially in the ways of animals, is like to occur again ; 
and 1 should not hesitate, when there was no tract of low 
springy underwood near at hand to Snipe meadows, to beat 
high wet woodlands for this bird, during the permanence of 
cold storms and violent winds, sufficient to drive them from the 
open fields. At all events, let the sportsman remember that in 
the Middle and Eastern States, bushy ground, briar-patches, 
alder and willow brakes, and the like, are as regular haunts of 
Snipe in spring, as bog tussocks or marshy meadows; and that 
there is no more propriety in his omitting to try such ground 
for them, than there would be in neglecting to beat thickets and 
dingles for Quail, because they ordinarily feed on stubbles. 
While I am mentioning the peculiar habits of the American 
Snipe, such more particularly as it is not generally known to 
possess, I may observe that although not web-footed, or even 
semi-palmated, this little bird swims rapidly and boldly. I was 
previously aware that, on falling wing-tipped into the water, it 
was able to support itself, and even to struggle away from a 
dog ; but I had no idea that it would" take the water of its own 
accord, till I was a witness to the fact under rather singular 
circumstances. I was standing still, loading my gun, both bar¬ 
rels of which I had just discharged, on the brink of a broad 
spring-fed ditch which runs along the lower side of the Long 
Meadow, when a bird, flushed by a friend at some distance, 
flew over my head and dropped within ten feet of me, on a 
spot of bare black soil, between two or three large grassy tus¬ 
socks, and the ditch. I had never, at that time, observed the 
natural motions of the Snipe, when unalarmed; and I stood 
watching him, for some time, as he walked gracefully to and 
fro, and stooped down once or twice and bored in the mud, 
bringing up each time a small red angle-worm in his bill, utterly 
unconscious of my presence. After a minute or two, he delib¬ 
erately entered the ditch, and oared himself across it, as easily 
and far more gracefully than any water-fowl could have done. 
I have since regretted, that I did not show myself at this mo¬ 
ment, in order that I might have ascertained whether it pos- 
