1 1 6 A Book of the Snipe. 



the " ready " for a minute or so, with your left 

 barrel only charged. It is perfectly astonish- 

 ing how many snipe select the precise moment 

 when you are fumbling for a fresh cartridge 

 to spring up and away before your open gun. 

 The result is usually a violent closing of the 

 breech, followed by a long despairing shot, and 

 perhaps an equally ineffective and unclassical 

 expletive. Speaking for myself, I can only 

 say that I have, over and over again, "scored 

 off" in this way a cunning second bird, which 

 I verily believe had been listening for the 

 click of the opening breech -action before it 

 ventured to follow its departed comrade. 

 Perhaps a truer explanation of this idiosyn- 

 crasy of snipe is the instinctive habit I have 

 observed in nearly all wild birds, namely, 

 that of crouching closer for an instant at the 

 ringing report of a gun, and waiting until the 

 echoes have died away before taking flight. 



One of the chief charms of snipe-shooting 

 is the delightful variety of the shots offered. 

 In the course of a long day's sport it will be 

 a rare thing to find two birds behaving in ex- 

 actly the same manner, even under identical 



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