156 FRANK forester's FIELD SPORTS. 



which it has fallen ; and I have found it a good plan, on step- 

 ping up after loading to look for your game, to drop your hat, 

 or handkerchief, on that which you conceive to be the exact 

 spot ; otherwise, while looking round among the grass, it is not 

 uncommon to lose the direction altogether. In covert shooting, 

 in marking a bird, whether shot at or not, which flies behind a 

 brake, impervious to the sight, cast your eye quickly forward to 

 the next opening, a little above the line of the bird's flight, if he 

 is rising, or below, if dropping on the wing, to make sure that 

 he does not pass it. If a killed bird is hidden from you by the 

 smoke of your own fire, and you perceive by the stream of fea- 

 thers that he is dead, allow a little for the speed and direction 

 of his flight, which, if he was going fast when struck, will often 

 throw him many feet forward of the spot where the shot smote 

 him. The shot itself, if close by and hard hit, will at times pitch 

 him a yard or two out of his course. 



A Snipe will sometimes, but not generally, carry away a good 

 many shot ; but when he does so, if marked down, he almost in- 

 variably rises again. Neither he nor his congener, the Wood- 

 cock, is in the habit — so common with the Quail, and sometimes 

 with the Ruffed Grouse — of flying away with his death-wound 

 and dying before he falls. A Quail or Grouse, shot through the 

 heart, or through the brain, will constantly tower, as it is termed, 

 directly up into the mid-air, with a perpendicular flight, and 

 quick beating of the wings, which are kept up till he vital spark 

 leaves the bird literally in the air, when it turns over on its back, 

 and falls like a stone. In windy weather many Quail are lost 

 thus, drifting out of reach ; but I never saw this occur with a 

 Woodcock, and never but once with a Snipe, which then only 

 flirted up a few feet, with an expiring effort. 



When, therefore, a Snipe goes away hard hit, mark him cai'e- 

 fully, and approach the spot stealthily, — it is all a toss-up whe- 

 ther he lies like a stone, or whirls up at sixty' paces, when he 

 hears you coming. But however hard he may lie, never relax 

 your watchfulness, or put your gun under your arm, or over 

 your shoulder, till he is bagged. I have seen a crippled bird 



