GAIiLINAGO 67 



There are three questions in regard to snipe shooting which seem 

 to be evergreen in their interest to sportsmen, and these three are : — 



(1) Is snipe shooting harder in England than in India '? 



(2) What constitutes a good shot ? and 



(3) What constitutes a good bag '? 



As regards the first question, there is, I think, little doubt that 

 on the whole, snipe are harder to hit at home than in India. There 

 can be no doubt that the average snipe at home is wilder, flies faster 

 and twists more than he does out here, but, on the other hand, the 

 difference between shooting on a sweltering day in September in the 

 Plains of India and shooting at home on a frosty day is very great 

 indeed, and goes a long way to level up the chances between the gun 

 and the bird. As the weather gets colder, the birds out here get 

 away quicker and stronger and more nearly approach in their flight 

 their English brethren. 



As to what constitutes a good shot is diflicult to say. One can- 

 not find out if a man is a good shot by the result of one day's 

 shooting. Sometimes birds seem specially sluggish, the walking is 

 good and the shooter fit, so that missing seems harder than hitting ; 

 other days birds are unaccountably wild, the walking is deep and 

 treacherous, and the powder consequently wasted. Possibly calculat- 

 ing on a whole cold weather shooting the man who gets one bird to 

 every two cartridges expended may call liiviself a good shot, he who 

 finishes up the season with an average of two in three is a good shot, 

 whilst the man with an average of three in four is hard to beat, and 

 may be considered a really crack shot. 



The best shooting I have ever seen was done by my father, 

 Mr. E. B. Baker, in 1884 at Hugh. He commenced with twelve 

 consecutive kills, then a miss, and twelve more kills, then another 

 miss and fourteen kills, after a third miss yet another dozen birds. 



This meant fifty-one birds in fifty-four shots, and his final bag for 

 the day was eighty-four birds in ninety-two shots. 



The best shooting I have ever heard of, which was properly 

 authenticated, was the performance of Mr. H. Cornish, then Superin- 

 tendent of Police, Orissa. The shooting was the result of a bet of 

 25 to 1 that he could not shoot a hundred birds with a hundred 

 cartridges, 10 to 1 that he would not get ninety-six, and 3 to 1 that 



