244 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



snooze; hence, I would urge it upon the sportsman 

 that, if he knows that there are any birds on the ground, 

 and fails to find them in their usual hiding-places during 

 the noon hours, he should try such places as I have 

 named. He may not find many birds, but if he watches 

 those he does find, and which go off unshot at, they 

 will almost invariably go to where the main body of the 

 birds are, and thus guide him to good shooting. 



The snipe is a bird of strange ways, and the sooner 

 you recognize that fact, the sooner will you become 

 expert in finding them. As they do not give out a strong 

 scent, do not be in a hurry to find fault with your dog 

 because he points, and you fail to flush the birds at once 

 on going up to him. Wild as they are in general, they 

 will, at times, squat till almost trodden upon. To show 

 how cunning they are, I will relate the trick one tried to 

 play on me. I was, at the time, working a red and white 

 setter the grandest and most trustworthy snipe-dog I 

 have ever seen. The dog had worked over a low, wet 

 place without finding game, and had, with myself, 

 reached the high, dry ground. Suddenly he turned, and 

 pointed where the ground was entirely bare, and close to 

 where a fence had been standing. On walking up to him, 

 no bird flushed, and so devoid of all cover was the ground, 

 that I could have seen a sparrow had one been there. I 

 spoke to the dog, and for an instant he looked up in my 

 face and wagged his tail, and then straightened out 

 again. I began to think that, for once, dear old Monk 

 was wrong, but I was too old a hand to show him I 

 thought so. I walked out in front of him for some 

 yards, walked around on the meadow, and still nothing 

 flushed. Coming back to him, I walked up to a post- 

 hole about a foot deep, when up, with a ' ' scaipe, scaipe, ' ' 

 rose a snipe. I was so completely taken with surprise, 

 that the wonder is I did not make a clean miss, yet I cut 



