154 O'er Crag- and Torrent 



Corfu to Butrinto, twelve miles distant, 

 starting after breakfast, shoot fifty couple of 

 snipe, row himself back, and be present at 

 mess the same night, and he won his bet 

 "hands down," having shot sixty-three and 

 a half couple. In England a bag of fifteen 

 or twenty couple is well-nigh unheard of 

 to a single gun. Of Scotland I can say 

 nothing ; but even in Ireland, with its wide 

 areas of bog and marshland, so attractive to 

 snipe, it is only in some few favoured 

 localities that there is a chance of getting 

 such a bag ; and indeed chance enters very 

 largely into the prospect, for our well-beloved 

 little bird is as uncertain in his visits as he 

 is erratic in his flight. Anticipation, it has 

 been asserted, is the delightful stimulant of 

 all sport. It may be so ; but from a pretty 

 long experience, I can say that in snipe 

 shooting the result mighty seldom compares 

 favourably or comes up to our anticipation. 



