How to walk for and shoot Snipe. 73 



things that go to make a successful sportsman 

 are inferior to the same qualities in your 

 companion, your disadvantage will be more 

 apparent and more irritating when plodding 

 after '*Rock" or ''Trust" than in any other 

 circumstance of shooting. No ; if you prefer 

 to find your birds with the aid of your dogs, 

 and there is no more thoroughly delightful 

 form of the sport, let them be your only 

 companions, and you will gain not only in 

 bag but in peace of mind. Finally, birds 

 will constandy be flushed midway between 

 two guns walking in line and wide apart; 

 and here, too, there is a great danger of 

 the doubt, which to the cowering snipe 

 means distance and salvation. 



Of course it would be absurd to urge 

 these advantages of solitude for every de- 

 scription of country. If your beat is wide, 

 open marsh or moorland, two guns will get 

 nearly as much shooting as one, and if 

 naturally disinclined for lonely wandering, 

 will gain far more in enjoyment than they 

 lose in slain. I have shot snipe in company 



