46 Sporting Sketches 



range. Dogs broken on Bob Whites, and in every 

 way reliable on the uplands, could not be expected 

 to understand this, and some of them require days 

 to master the peculiarities of the long-bills. 



A great many men employ Bob White tactics 

 when after snipe, especially in regard to beating up- 

 wind. This I do not advise, because it means a lot 

 of birds boring into the wind's eye and dodging like 

 mad while offering the smallest possible marks. A 

 cross section of a snipe going straight away is much 

 smaller than many people imagine. The vitals of 

 a bird so going might be covered by a silver dollar, 

 the head is apt to be covered by the body, while 

 only the edges of the wings are exposed, which 

 means an extremely narrow surface. Because the 

 bird loves to bore up-wind, I walk down-wind, thus 

 securing a quick chance as he curves into the wind 

 in front, or else a square crossing shot as he passes 

 up-wind at either side. In these positions the effect 

 of his dodging is minimized, while I still retain the 

 privilege of making a half turn and using the second 

 barrel at a straightaway or almost a straightaway bird 

 that has got through dodging and is trusting solely 

 to speed. In all these shots the gun has a better 

 chance, in a straightaway after the turn, while, of 

 course, the side shots mean all one side of the bird 

 and most of the long wings fully exposed. This 

 gives the gun a rather large target instead of a very 

 small one, and practically does away with the saving 

 erratic flight. 



The reason why some men work up-wind is be- 

 cause they imagine the straightaway shot to be 

 easier. They fail at crossing shots, not because the 



