128 GAME BIRDS. 



ones. There is no shooting that presents such a variety of shots, 

 scarcely any two being alike. These birds usually fly against 

 the wind ; therefore, every snipe -shooter should walk down it, 

 as by that means the bird, if it rises before him, will fly back, 

 and, coming round him, describe a kind of circle; or at least hia 

 flight, for a certain distance, will not lengthen the shot, allowing 

 him a certain time to cover the bird, and take good aim ; for if 

 he gets up before him, and should by chance go down the wind, 

 or from him, it is then the most difficult shot. It will be proper, 

 in this case, to let the bird get a little distance from him, as then 

 he will fly steadier, and the slightest grain will fetch him to the 

 ground. 



Pointers are made use of by many, in shooting this bird, and 

 what is very singular, although these birds are so diminutive, in 

 comparison with the game, which pointers are accustomed to, yet 

 they will stand equally staunch to them, even to the jack-snipe, 

 which is the smallest of these birds. If you use the pointer, it 

 should be a very old, staunch one : a young pointer will be too 

 quick, and will be spoiled as to other game. When these birds 

 are very plenty, the snipe-shooters never make use of a dog, as 

 they always walk them up, which is found to answer best, and 

 afford the most sport. The jack-snipe, or jud-cock, is esteemed 

 the most difficult shot, although he seldom, on rising, makes any 

 twistings or turnings, and will alight and pitch again, after being 

 fired at, within a couple of hundred yards, and will suffer himself 

 to be fired at twenty times in the same field, and will each time 

 pitch close to the shooter. In Ireland, in the bottoms of the 

 county of Limerick, near Gharleville, these birds are in the 

 greatest abundance ; it is not uncommon to hear of a person 

 shooting twenty brace of them in the morning. The late Sir 

 George Dunbar, of the 14th Regiment of Light Dragoons, when 

 quartered at Charleville, won a considerable wager, by shooting 

 forty-three brace, between ten o'clock in the morning and four in 

 the afternoon ; and what appears still more extraordinary is, that 

 although there are so many sportsmen about the place, who follow 

 these birds, and others who net them, yet you will find always 

 enough of sport the day following, for there seems to be as many 

 snipes, after two months' destruction, as there were at the begin- 

 ning of the season. The county of Cork is likewise celebrated 

 for its number of snipe. 



