154 FRANK FORESTER S FIELD SPORTS. 



flattering enough to say, did know something about shooting, 

 should be such a flat as to shoot Snipe down-ivind. In the even- 

 ing he came into the bar-room, and there found, first of all, that 

 I had beaten him by some half-dozen birds, which he said he 

 expected ; and, secondly, that it was for a reason, and not for 

 the want of one, that I shot Snipe down-wind. He admitted at 

 once, that he saw throughout the day that I was getting more 

 and better shots than he, whereat he mai-velled, seeing he knew 

 himself better dogged than I ; but that he still marvelled why 

 I should shoot down-wind. He was, however, open to convic- 

 tion, and was, perhaps, not sorry at having a reason to give for 

 being beaten. 



Double shots at Snipe are by no means uncommon — com- 

 moner, I think, than at any other species of game — for although, 

 as a general rule, the snipe is a solitary bird, both in his habits 

 of flight and feeding, and acts independently of his neighbors, 

 you will usually find numbers of them feeding nearly together, 

 and rising nearly at the same time, because alanned by the same 

 sound. Under these circumstances, however, they do not usu- 

 ally fly off" together, like a bevy of quail, or a plump of wild 

 fowl, but scatter, each at his own will. Now as the wildest 

 birds always spring first, it often happens that your discharge, at 

 a long shot, flushes another much nearer by ; I therefore strongly 

 urge it on beginners to be a little patient, and not to blaze away 

 hoth barrels in succession at the same bird, or even at two birds, 

 nearly out of distance, since by doing so they will very often 

 lose a good chance of bagging a bird close at hand. 



It is, moreover, a very absurd and unsportsmanlike practice 

 to fire at Snipe out of shot, yet it is a very common one. The 

 Snipe is a very small bird, and offers, particularly when flying 

 directly from the shooter, an inconceivably small target. It is 

 not possible that one can be killed, with anything like certainty, 

 at above fifty yards, — I name an extreme limit. Now, in ordi- 

 nary weather, the odds are about three to one, that a bird flushed, 

 and not uselessly shot at, at this distance, will alight again with- 

 in three or four hundred yards, or upward, and perhaps afford 



