io6 A Book of the Snipe. 



really fine performer, you must have noticed 

 how quickly, when forced to a double salute, 

 his second barrel followed his first. Indeed 

 I know several very consistent scorers who 

 confess to their first barrel being always more 

 or less experimental, their chief reliance being 

 placed on the corrected alignment of the 

 second. This is, of course, a bad style of 

 shooting, which I do not recommend to 

 beginners. Faith In the second barrel has, 

 however, often the merit of rendering the first 

 successful by doing away to a certain extent 

 with over -anxiety at the moment of the 

 shooter s becoming aware of a bird springing 

 before him. The gunner being so nonchalant 

 over his first discharge, Is exceedingly likely to 

 down his bird, a discovery that no doubt orig- 

 inated the habit In the sportsmen I refer to. 



To repeat, then : it Is on your first chance 

 and your first barrel that you should really rely, 

 and the quicker you are in seizing the chance 

 and firing the barrel, the bigger will be your 

 annual bag of snipe — a fact that has been, I 

 think, so conclusively proved that It would 



