Bogtrotting, etc. 109 



tlon on the physiology of shooting, but it 

 will be easily imagined how many and how 

 incredibly swift are the processes which a 

 man has to perform before he can kill a 

 series of birds darting away like lightning, 

 each one probably at a different angle, a 

 different pace, and a different height to the 

 last. But as I have presumed in the reader 

 a general acquaintance with the art of shoot- 

 ing, it is only necessary to say that in the 

 case of snipe- shooting these processes are 

 exactly the same as in any other sport with 

 the gun, only quicker, more varied, and more 

 unconscious. For this reason it is doubly 

 difficult to reduce to writing the method 

 of holding the gun at a snipe on the wing. 

 Except, of course, in the rare case of a snipe 

 flying in a direct line away from you, the 

 gun is never held on the bird at all. As far 

 as one can describe the indescribable, the 

 correct movement seems to be an uninter- 

 rupted lift and swing, the lift of course being 

 to or, more commonly, towards the shoulder, 

 and the swing in the same direction as, but 



