290 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



course, this old man, knowing nothing about the 

 Snipe being migratory, and fresh lots coming in 

 yearly from abroad to feed on the bogs, thought 

 that when Col. P. had shot such quantities of 

 them that he must have extinguished them 

 altogether. 



There are two distinct ways of shooting the Snipe 



in his zigf-zag- flio-ht, ?one beino- to take him the 



moment he rises and snapshot him — so to speak^ 



as many Pigeon shots do at trap shooting ; the other 



is to let him o-o a bit and take him after his first twist 



or two. I was once shooting Snipe in county Clare, 



west coast of Ireland, and was out with the Irish 



champion shot, a keeper named O'Halloran, who 



had made the best record bag of Snipe in one 



season for one gun, which was mentioned in the 



Badminton. I really forget whether it was 1,400 or 



1,400 couple. I must say I felt rather nervous at 



going out with such a man. We were shooting in 



marshy grass fields, which were so small as to do 



away with the necessity for dogs. Well, this man 



used to walk rather fast, hold his gun almost to his 



shoulder as if expecting a Pigeon, and the moment 



the Snipe was up, pull the trigger, and down, more 



often than not, came the bird ; but he did miss, 



I am glad to say, and here I may mention, that I 



have never yet seen the man that didn't. I said, 



"I see you do miss sometimes." "Oh! yes, Cornel, 



the fact is, that I have not been shooting Snipe for 



a long time, but Gulls instead, and shooting them 



has quite spoilt me for Snipe." 



