How to ivalk for and shoot Snipe. 91 



that every now and then a bird, clearly seen 

 to fall dead, will have disappeared in a most 

 mysterious and exasperating fashion when 

 you or your attendant go forward to gather 

 it. The number of snipe completely lost in 

 this manner throughout a season's shooting 

 is astonishing ; but it will be reduced if it is 

 remembered that a dead snipe usually falls 

 nearer to you than it appears to do. I have 

 often seen sportsmen walk right over their 

 bird, fallen, maybe, back upwards, and har- 

 monising exactly with the surrounding growth, 

 only to search vainly and impatiently perhaps 

 ten yards beyond it. This peculiarity is 

 especially noticeable when birds are shot, as 

 they constantly will be, as they skim over 

 a wall or bank. From your side it will look 

 as if the impetus of their flight had car- 

 ried them many yards into the field or 

 marsh on the other side ; but in nine 

 cases out of ten the bird will be found 

 right under the bank itself, often in the 

 ditch or rough herbage that runs along its 

 foot. 



