no A Book of the Snipe, 



faster than, the flight of the bird. There 

 must be nothing of the *'two motions" busi- 

 ness beloved of drill-sergeants, or the shooter 

 will get into the bad habit of pottering. A 

 gun brought with a rap, or ** smartly," as 

 the sergeant says, into the hollow of the 

 shoulder needs a certain amount of steady- 

 ing, a concession that is unconsciously granted 

 by the ''one! two!" class of marksmen, en- 

 tailing naturally loss of time to the gunner 

 and gain in distance to the bird. I have 

 often heard it questioned whether good 

 shooting could possibly be made unless the 

 butt of the gun were firmly bedded into the 

 shoulder at each discharge. As far as my 

 observation goes, I can safely say that good 

 shooting, at snipe anyhow, cannot possibly 

 result if this necessarily slow action of the 

 stock is attended to every time. Touch the 

 shoulder it does, as a rule, of course ; but the 

 touch is often so sll2:ht until after the shot 

 has left the barrel as to be practically non- 

 existent. Any one who has seen a crack 

 rabbit-shot crumple up the furry little thunder- 



