Bogtrotting, etc. 107 



not require much insistence, were it not 

 that the usual advice of writers and talkers 

 about snipe - shooting is the adoption of an 

 exactly opposite course. I can only say that 

 in my own case, at least, the " waiting game " 

 has time after time resulted in the conversion 

 of easy shots into difficult ones, with the 

 inevitable accompaniment of that distressing 

 and only drawback to sport with the gun, 

 wounded birds. 



I hope that every reader can truthfully 

 say that he would far rather clean miss a 

 whole series of birds than gather them all 

 still alive. It is, I know, a platitude of 

 shooting ; but if it were only generally felt 

 to be something more than this, we would 

 not perhaps see so much of that cruel, be- 

 cause in the case of snipe so often successful, 

 ''long chance taking," to witness which often 

 makes the heart of the real sportsman a good 

 deal heavier than the bag of the savage who 

 indulges in it. Any duffer may hit a snipe 

 at 70 yards with one or two at least of the 

 500 or so pellets that usually compose a 



