140 FIELD SHOOTING. 



dred, I was to be the loser. I was willing to put 

 up the money, and to take General Strong him- 

 self as referee to see that I did it. They, how- 

 ever, declined to make the wager. If it had been 

 accepted, 1 should have chosen the Salt Creek and 

 Sangamon bottoms for the ground, and taken the 

 last week in April for the period. The birds are 

 then fat and lazy, and I am confident that 1 could 

 have done the feat. I should not, as a matter 

 of course, have bound myself to do it within a 

 certain time, because it is not possible to say 

 when you can find birds thick on the ground. 

 The snipe is somewhat erratic in his habits, and 

 change of weather causes them to change their 

 ground. If I had found snipe on that ground as 

 thick as I have sometimes done, I believe I 

 should have killed the one hundred, without a 

 miss, in one day. I should not have taken any 

 but fair chances, and I should not have let fair 

 shots go unimproved. In order to perform a feat 

 of this kind a man must have several essential 

 qualifications. He must be a dead-shot. He 

 must have the best of nerve, and never be 

 flurried in the least. With such a man, and a 

 gun of ten bore, charged with five drams of 

 powder and an ounce and a quarter of No. 12 



