OUTDOORS 



and dodging and have settled down to a 

 steady flight. But the shooters of the new 

 school, for the most part, do not wait that 

 long. In the first place, the birds are appar- 

 ently a trifle better educated now than in the 

 days of " auld lang syne," and if a man 

 waited until they were forty yards away they 

 might take advantage of some convenient 

 clump of willows or a hay-stack or a bunch 

 of tall-growing cane or some one of a number 

 of different bits of cover to disappear from 

 sight. So, too, they are wilder, especially in 

 the spring, and, generally speaking, they are 

 advanced in their methods. The best way to 

 shoot snipe at ordinary ranges of from twenty- 

 five to forty yards is just when they jump. 



Their flight is exceedingly elusive, and men 

 who are good quail, chicken, and duck shots 

 may be very poor performers on jack-snipe. 

 Once mastered, however, it is easy enough for 

 a crack shot to get his birds with quite a de- 

 gree of regularity. As a -rule that meets with 

 few exceptions, the average of three shells 

 to a bird when the snipe are at all wild is a 

 good average. But in the fall, when the 

 birds lie closer, and when they can be put 

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