Small Game Shooting 297 



After dinner comes the inevitable nap, the siesta 

 of the Lotus Land, and then the camp is put in 

 order. At five you prepare for the evening shoot. 

 Then follows supper, and the yarns and songs of 

 the camp-fire ; and so — as old Pepys has it — to 

 bed. 



Snipe-shooting is perhaps more fascinating than 

 any other kind of sport because it comes so seldom. 

 In our county I have known a couple of years to 

 pass without our bringing to bag more than a few 

 birds. And even in the best of seasons, they come 

 and go mysteriously : here in legions to-day — gone 

 to-morrow. 



We had the right of shooting snipe in a marsh 

 belonging to a friend of ours, and here we have 

 passed many days for ever marked with red. Our 

 friend was a Southerner, upon whose genial face 

 hospitality was writ large, and his wife was a 

 Scotchwoman, a daughter of the Land of Cakes ; so 

 you may believe that we fared well beneath their 

 roof. Kot only were the snipe plentiful, but we 

 were sure also of shooting many ducks — widgeon 

 especially — and bordering the marsh was some 

 capital quail-ground. Shooting snipe is a knack ; 

 a knack, however, that some men never acquire, 

 partly perhaps for lack of practice, and partly be- 

 cause they will shoot at the bird as it goes away, 

 instead of just above it. A snipe rises as it flies, 

 a quail does not, and I have seen good quail-shots 

 miss snipe after snipe although — as they always 

 explain to me afterwards — they were " dead on " 

 to their bird. 



