410 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



producing a sinuous motion in regular curves, varying a few 

 feet on either side from a right line, and crossing it, perhaps, 

 every thirty or forty feet. Sometimes, again, they start by a 

 rapid and almost perpendicular ascent, and then sag away from 

 the wind. The mode of flight depends of course on certain 

 conditions : the state of the atmosphere, the force of the wind, 

 the nature of the ground, the season, the bird's condition of 

 bod}*", etc. Snipe almost invariably fly into the wind ; if a 

 bunch of high reeds, a fence, or a line of trees, is in the way, 

 or if for any other reason they ascend rapidly, they must after- 

 ward either fall off, flying across or down the wind, or else 

 tack up into it to get headway. Since no bird can with rapid- 

 idity start from a stationary position in the air against a strong 

 wind, the more nearly stationary that a bird is, so is his diffi- 

 culty the greater. If, on the contrary, there are no obstruc- 

 tions, and the birds jump at once from the ground into the 

 teeth of the wind, taking a nearly horizontal line, there is less 

 likelihood of their tacking or falling away, for it is not so neces- 

 sary. In spring, the shooting is often more difficult, for the 

 birds are light weights, and in great training when they reach 

 us. They are both migrating and mating, and often seem to 

 be in a state of restless activity and nervous excitement, which 

 makes it very difficult to kill or even to approach them. So it 

 is also in autumn, when the birds first appear ; they are fre- 

 quently wild and active, so much so as to make the pursuit 

 of them a series of vexations ; and yet, two days afterwards, 

 the very same birds, having got fat and a little more lazy, 

 afford delightful sport. 



After hearing the accepted rules condemned, the reader may 

 well ask for some substitute, but such rules are like rules of gram- 

 mar ; a man may shoot well, and speak grammatical^, knowing 

 no rules ; he may know all rules and yet be able to do neither. 

 Yet to know what others have learned is often useful. The 

 success of sportsmen is more often due to their manner of 

 getting shots than to their manner of making them. The chief 

 difficulty in Snipe-shooting is the sudden and unexpected way 

 in which the birds often jump, on either side or behind ; but 



