of the country from which they come, and
strangely enough they appear to be less numerous and do not arrive so
simultaneously as the spring birds, though remaining longer, many
staying on through the winter. These do not frequent the dry meadows
and fields, but belong to the long boots, mud and marsh category.

I have never seen but one jack snipe, though the painted variety is
fairly common.

In the neighbourhood of a creek seven miles below Hankow is to be had
the best spring snipe-shooting that I know of. One bright May morning,
in response to the invitation of an old friend, I joined him and two
other guests aboard his house-boat and sailed down the Yangtse to this
well-known spot. On landing I shouldered my bag, containing fifty
cartridges, and told my coolie to bring a new box of a hundred in the
game-bag.

The plan was to send the house-boat to a place three or four miles
further down river, where, after shooting through the fields, the guns
would meet for tiffin.

Just as the lowdah was casting off our host asked if he might put a
few bottles of beer into my game-bag as it was a warm and thirsty
morning; so, to make room, and thinking that the snipe had not yet
fully arrived, in which case the spare cartridges would not be
required, they were replaced on board. We had not, however, walked
many yards along the river bank before it became apparent that there
were any number of birds, and I already regretted having so few
cartridges with me. After crossing the creek in a crazy sampan the
party separated, each taking his own line of country. Presently a
tremendous fusillade commenced from all the others, and as the snipe
were rising around them continually and making for a large swamp to my
left, I concealed myself in some millet, where, the birds coming
before the wind directly over my head, I enjoyed for half an hour or
so some excellent shooting and made a number of very sporting shots.

I now started for the swamp, but ere reaching it passed through some
grass patches between fields of barley and beans. The birds here rose
by the dozen, and standing on the same spot, without advancing a yard,
I shot eight, which were all on the ground at one time. My gun became
so hot that it was necessary to open it to let the barrels cool, while
the cartridges were all gone in less than an hour, so that carrying my
now useless weapon and boiling with rage, I had to start in pursuit of
the house-boat, with the shots of t