CHAPTER XIX. 



SNIPE. 



I>r is probable, that, if a hundred sportsmen were asked what bird 

 they considered the most difficult to hit, ninety-nine of them would 

 unhesitatingly answer ''the snipe." It may be that the pheasant is 

 harder to kill, that the chukar (red-legged partridge) will carry more 

 shot, or that the thick feathers of the duck afford it greater protection ; 

 but all these birds are comparatively reliable in their habits and fly 

 straight, though fast, and so can be readily accounted for by a reason- 

 ably good shot. 



The snipe, however, is as uncertain a bird as it is possible to im- 

 agine. It rises in unexpected places, sometimes almost out of range, 

 sometimes under one's very nose, and as often as not after one has 

 passed the spot, where it lay crouched ready to spring like a rocket 

 into the air. One may never be sure in which direction the snipe 

 will go, and besides being an unusually fast flyer, it often cuts a rapid 

 zigzag course, thus adding enormously to the difficulty of bringing 

 it down. Again, not only does each bird differ from the last in its 

 mode of procedure, but they all vary very considerably with the wea- 

 ther and the time of day. Thus on a windy day some birds will stick 

 close; while, amongst those that fly>, the tendency is to rise into the 

 wind : and in the evening snipe will rise within easy range, when earlier 

 in the day it was impossible to get a decent shot. 



To take advantage of the snipe's rising into the wind the sportsman 

 walks down wind, only to find that the birds hear his approach sooner 

 and so get up at a greater range. 



Then again the ground favoured by\ snipe varies, and the sports- 

 man never can be sure just where they will be on the particular day 

 he chooses for his outing. Where he found them thick one day there 

 will be none the next, and, after having carefully waded through 

 likely looking marsh for a couple of hours, he reaches some dry ground 

 and slings his gun over his shoulder to light his pipe, up gets a "whisp" 

 and with derisive chirps go skimming away out of sight. 



