18 SNIPE-SHOOTING. 
marslies^ and when flushed return almost immediately. Some 
of the best sport I have had with them was by waiting in 
favourite ground while they kept coming in^ flying high up 
over head, and then swooping down and pitching within a 
few yards. I have known fifty couple bagged in a day by 
one gun, thirty or twenty-eight couple a gun per day being 
often obtained. The proportion of Jack-snipe is about the 
same as in England, and they keep to the most wet and 
muddy spots. Snipe, as a rule, in Andalucia are far more 
wild than in other countries, which is no doubt caused by the 
nature of the marshes, which, often quite dry at the end of 
summer, are in winter regular lakes, only at their edges 
affording any resting-places for the Snipe, the cover being 
usually thin and bare. 
There are many acres of ground flooded with water, from 
about six inches to a foot in depth, the whole dotted over 
with tussocks standing an inch or two above the water, and 
about a foot apart from each other. This tussocky ground 
is most difficult both to walk over and shoot on, as the 
tufts are not broad enough to stand on with both feet, and 
these slippery lumps of mud and grass standing above the 
water enable the Snipe to see a long distance, and cause them 
to rise veiy wildly ; while they also have a most provoking 
habit of flying up just as you are trying to balance yourself 
on one of the tussocks. The result, if you fire, is most pro- 
bably a miss, and down you slip into the water, lucky if on 
your legs and not on your knees or, as happened to me more 
than once, on your face. There is, however, one point in 
favour of all these sotos : they have a firm bottom, the mud 
is never deep, and there are no quaking bogs or dangerous 
morasses as in Ireland. A retriever, it is almost needless to 
add, is perfectly indispensable for this sport, saving (in addition 
to many birds that would otherwise be lost) much time and 
the bad temper which results fi*om not being able to find 
birds that have fallen. Snipe in Andalucia are very seldom 
seen in lots together or in wisps, though occasionally in very 
wet stormy weather small wisps appear. The best localities 
which I have visited in Andalucia are the marshes near the 
