WILSON'S SNIPE. 187 



afforded ; but when I got within twenty-five or 

 thirty yards they whirled away on high, and after 

 triangulating the skies for a while concluded that 

 the old place was safe enough, and came pitching 

 swiftly down to alight within a few rods, perhaps, 

 of the place where started. They made fine 

 shooting with the shot-gun, but I had with me a 

 rifle of small caliber, shooting a sharp-pointed ball 

 that tore birds no more than shot, and I soon 

 found there was even more fun in shooting them 

 with that than with shot. 



One used only to the target might think it an 

 easy matter to hit a snipe at twenty-five or thirty 

 paces. But your target is always at the same 

 distance and in the same position of light. It is 

 also clear and well defined. These snipe made, 

 moreover, the very finest marks at which I ever 

 shot ; and so extreme was the accuracy required, 

 I had to clean the riflie with water every fev/ 

 shots. The head of a squirrel in the highest tree, 

 or that of a ruffed grouse motionless in the dark 

 shade of a pine, the faintest shade of gray or 

 brown that ever marked a deer in dense and dis- 

 tant covert, w^ere no finer marks than these little 

 birds at twenty-five yards. Squatting close to the 



