The Wizard of the Wetlands 49 



such shots because he knows the pellets might not 

 again find the mark once in ten attempts, although 

 given the proper allowance for the distance. 



There are two deadly methods of shooting straight- 

 away snipe. One is lightning-fast, the next thing 

 to out-and-out snap shooting. The other is to wait 

 until the bird has completed his shifty first flight 

 and give it to him the moment he steadies. Both 

 are scientific. I prefer the former, because, being 

 naturally very quick with my hands, I can get on a 

 bird before he has time to begin dodging. Were 

 it not for this, I certainly should wait. A man to 

 shoot at all evenly must do one or other, for any 

 attempt at a compromise will leave him neither 

 quick nor slow and prone to fire at precisely the 

 wrong moment, when the wizard of the wet lands is 

 in the midst of his little trick wherein the quickness 

 of the wing deceives the eye. 



And now a glimpse of snipe shooting in which 

 the characteristic sameness of leagues of wide wet 

 lands and successive springing, dodging, scaiping 

 sprites was a bit varied. Unto me spake long Tom, 

 and his words were crisp and as follows : 



" Now will you be ready at 3 A.M. and game to 

 foot it out ? " 



"I will! "said I. 



I meant it, and I had need to, for when long Tom 

 got through with you, other things also seemed long, 

 notably that awful final homeward mile. Our cam- 

 paign necessitated a gray-dawn start, because it 

 began with a six-mile tramp in cold blood along a 

 railroad track. We might have driven to one cor- 

 ner of the ground, but to take a horse also meant 



