io8 A Book of the Snipe. 



snipe charge. At that distance, even with 

 the best gun, the zvidt/i of the charge of 

 shot will be something over 200 feet, and 

 though the outside grains will have but little 

 relative momentum, it may be sufficient to 

 injure so frail a target as a four-ounce bird. 

 A single pellet may, and often does, break 

 a bone or a leg, or, as I have constantly 

 seen, the bill of the poor bird, which may 

 or may not fall and meet a merciful death 

 at the rough hands of its torturer ; but it is 

 playing a terribly low game on a sporting 

 little wanderer, who certainly plays his part 

 of it well enough according to the laws. 

 Eschew long shots, then, as you would 

 cheating at cards or any other atrocity, and 

 kill or miss your snipe neatly and smartly 

 within sporting range. You will not often 

 wound if you are as quick over your work 

 as you ought to be. 



There is, of course, a great deal of uncon- 

 scious art to be brought into play before 

 the instantaneous first barrel I recommend. 

 This is no place to enter into a disquisi- 



