UPLAND SHOOTING. 155 



a good chance, and lie to a ])()int. But blaze at him, and per- 

 liaps sting him with a stray shot, and he shall fly you a mile at a 

 stretch ; besides that, your shot has disturbed the meadow, and 

 perhaps flushed half-a-dozen others. Let it not be supposed, 

 however, that I would inculcate slow and poking shooting ; on 

 the contrary I abhor it. 



The most unsportsmanlike thing that a man can do, in this 

 line, is not to fire at a bird, when there is a reasonable chance of 

 killing it ; the next, is to fire at a bird when there is not a rea- 

 sonable chance of killing it. 



Snipe-shooting being practised ninety-nine times out of a 

 hundred in perfectly open ground, the birds can be marked by 

 an experienced hand at the work, to a great distance, and to a 

 great nicety. But there is a good deal of knack in it ; and I 

 hardly ever saw a countryman, who did not shoot, who did mark 

 even decently. An ordinary obsei-\'er, when he loses sight of a 

 bird flying low, is apt to suppose he has stopped at the point 

 where he last saw him, a conclusion than which nothing can be 

 more erroneous. 



Every bird has his own fashion of alighting from the wing, 

 and that of the Snipe and Woodcock is very peculiar ; they both 

 jerk themselves a little way up into the air, make a short turn, 

 and pitch down backward. Once noticed, this motion cannot 

 be mistaken ; and once made, you may be sure that the bird 

 has dropped. All that remains to be done is to mark the place, 

 so as to find it again, which in an expanse of open jiasture or 

 meadow-land, waving with even grass, or covered with tufts of 

 rushes, each one precisely like its neighbor, is far from an easy 

 matter. The better way is to raise the eye slowly fi-om the spot 

 toward the horizon — in case the ground is quite devoid of any 

 near landmark of stump, bush, pool, or the like — where yon will 

 be nearly sure to find some tree, building, hill-toj), or other emi- 

 nent object, which you may bring into one lino with your bird, 

 after which you will have no difficulty in finding him. 



In marking dead birds within a near range, you should ever 

 endeavor to fix the very leaf, or branch, or bunch of grass, on 



