74 ^ Book of the Snipe. 



with parties of all sizes. I have even, 

 horresco referens, advanced to the attack as 

 one of a long line of gunners, who insisted 

 on treating the moors in the same stately 

 battle-order fashion as they did their native 

 Norfolk turnip-drills. Every snipe in the 

 country was duly found and flushed, I must 

 admit, but at a distance which drew from 

 that floundering skirmishing - line many a 

 growl. '' Much better fun drivin' 'em," 

 ejaculated one disgusted sportsman, a noted 

 performer with three ejectors in a grouse- 

 butt ; and I agreed that the amusement very 

 probably would be about equal, If not 

 superior. This, however, is an extreme case, 

 and it Is only necessary to summarise by 

 repeating the advice to limit your numbers 

 as far as possible, and, if congenial, to seek 

 your sport with the irreducible minimum of 

 one. You will come across so many odd 

 corners that hold one bird, and so many 

 little strips of rush and reed too narrow 

 for the progress of more than one human, 

 that you will bless your unsociability a 



