THE FIELD. SNIPE-SHOOTING. 255 



One may walk the birds up without any dog, and with 

 this advantage, that they will lie better to a man than 

 to a man and a dog, as also to a man with one dog, than 

 to one or two men with two, three or four dogs. But if 

 the range be very extensive, and the birds very scarce, 

 lying, perhaps, scattered wide apart, two or three or half a 

 dozen to the square mile, where is the slow man and the 

 slow old pointer ? 



Now a fast dog may and should be both very steady, 

 and thoroughly cautious. By steady, I mean that he must 

 be stanch as steel, and immovable on his point. For 

 snipe-shooting, above all things, he must not crawl in, or 

 attempt to decrease his distance from his game, but must 

 stand stiff, the instant he is sure that his game is before 

 him. Snipe rarely run under any circumstances, and still 

 more rarely will endure the crawling up of a timid and 

 tender-nosed dog. Secondly, he must remain motionless 

 and unexcited, though the shooter, instead of coming up 

 to flush the bird over his point, should he chance to point 

 up wind or across wind, turn his back upon his tail, make 

 a long circuit, and come down in his face. 



He must also, if possible, though few dogs will do so, 

 advance to meet the gun on a silent beckon of the hand, 

 without call or whistle. He must, when whistled in, be 

 willing to follow steadily at heel, without an endeavor to 

 beat until ordered to go on, which is a point of the great- 

 est consequence in snipe-shooting ; for a bird which is 

 marked down will often allow a man to walk close in upon 

 it, which would flush wide of a dog ; and, as the snipe never 

 runs above a few feet from the spot into which he is 



