GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND 



IN EAST AND WEST 



CHAPTER I. 



SNIPE-SHOOTING. 



DEAR to the gunner's heart is the little " long-bill," for 

 wherever he may wander, there, at some time or other 

 of the year, the snipe will be found. No other game 

 is so widely distributed, unless it is the hare. But the 

 hare varies from the Arctic variety through many 

 species, ending with the tropical black-necked kind. 

 The snipe on the other hand is, I believe, always the 

 same in the Old World. Of course there are even in 

 England the three kinds : the common snipe, jack 

 snipe, and the rare double snipe. But it is the 

 common snipe which one finds alike in the bogs of 

 Ireland, the marshes of Siberia, and the rice-fields of 

 India. In America I have heard tell of other kinds 

 (do they call them wood snipe ?), in name, habits, and 

 appearance a cross between the woodcock and the 

 snipe. 



I have often pondered on this question : where are 



