THE FIELD. SNIPE-SHOOTING. 259 



a single ball, miss him clean, the best time to take him. 

 The old notion of waiting till he has done twisting, and 

 then downing him, is like that other notion of pulling out 

 your box and taking a pinch of snuff, after the bird rises, 

 and before raising your gun at him very good to talk 

 about. In nine cases out of ten, to wait until a wild, 

 sharp-flying snipe on a windy day has done twisting, is to 

 wait until he is out of shot. 



If he rise above fifteen yards from the shooter, and he 

 will seldom rise closer, he cannot in my opinion be shot 

 too quickly. But it is worthy to be remembered, that 

 with No. 8 shot, the right size, the distance at which the 

 charge covers the greatest circle within which the bird 

 must be hit, is thirty yards. 



The snipe is a very quick-flying bird except at the instant 

 I have mentioned, or in the case of his being tame and lazy 

 on hot days ; it will be necessary, therefore, when he is once 

 under way, to make allowance for him. At fifteen or twen- 

 ty yards, if he be crossing at speed, the gun should be 

 levelled at least one foot ahead of him ; at forty a full 

 yard. If he be going straight away, the aim should be 

 taken something over him, probably about half the allow- 

 ance given above ; and if he be zigzagging, nearly the 

 same allowance must be made, on whichever tack he may 

 be, as for a cross shot ; but to kill, the aim must be taken 

 and the gun fired, almost with the speed of light. 



Snipe-shooting, by those who cannot do it, is sometimes 

 called a knack. It is so for it is emphatically the 

 knack of shooting well. In no other respect is it a 

 knack; for it has nothing in it peculiar to itself, nor any 



