UPLAND SHOOTING. 
167 
fiad been, if I do not err, a very early fall of snow, succeeded 
by bard frosts early in November, and after that, uncommonly 
mild and open weather. 
In autumn Snipe-shooting there is nothing to be observed, 
except that the birds are more composed and less restless 
than in the spring; that, unless persecuted and driven from the 
ground by incessant shooting, they linger on the same mea¬ 
dows, until the coldness of the weather compels them to travel 
southward; that they lie much better to the dog, allowing 
themselves to be pointed steadily, and rarely flushing out of 
fair distance; and, to conclude, that they are much fatter, much 
larger, much easier to kill, and much better eating than in the 
spring season. I have never seen them in bushy ground, or 
even among briars, in the autumn, though I cannot state that 
they never take to such places. 
Mr. Audubon states the weight of the American Snipe at 3 
oz. The average weight of the English species is 4 oz. I 
never, but once, weighed any American birds. I was then 
struck by their apparently unusual size; when I weighed 
twenty-five together at the tavern at Pine Brook, and they 
averaged within a small fraction of 5 oz. each. 
The Snipe is delicious eating, inferior to no bird that flies, 
save the Upland Plover, and the Canvass-Back Duck. Like 
all birds that feed on, or near the water, he must be eaten fresh. 
A true gastronomer abhors Woodcock, Snipe or wild fowl, 
in the slightest degree high. Gallinaceous game are the better 
for keeping, wild fowl and waders are ruined by it. If pos¬ 
sible they should be eaten within twenty-four hours after being 
killed. 
They should be carefully picked by hand, on no account 
drawn—that is a practice worthy of an Esquimaux, as is that 
of splitch-cocking and broiling them—the neck should be bent 
downward, and the bill run transversely through the body, im¬ 
mediately below the pinions; one leg thrust through the sinew 
of the other thigh—they should be roasted, at the outside , ten 
minutes before a very quick, brisk fire ; with no condiment, or 
