SNIPE SHOOTING. 57 



As to his over-running birds, that is mere ba- 

 gatelle. Snipe have not as yet been arraigned 

 at the " Cedars" for wilfully withholding their 

 scent. 



A good dog is still permitted to wind them at 

 a safe distance. Their effluvia is still allowed to 

 be strong, even by those wonder-hunting gentle- 

 men, who, absorbed by one startling idea, like 

 the traveller who saw the calf's tail protruding 

 through a knot-hole in the tan-yard fence, invoke 

 the aid of clap-trap at once, disdaining to pay the 

 least regard to any ordinary solution of the mys- 

 tery. 



If, in the course of a day's sport, a few birds 

 are prematurely and unavoidably flushed, the 

 snipe shooter thinks no more of the matter, than 

 a general, after a successful engagement, does of 

 the casualties of the field. 



A disposition to range is characteristic of a 

 high-bred animal ; and it is this quality, which, 

 when united to staunchness and a knowledge of 

 ground imbibed from successive seasons of field 

 practice, mainly constitutes a snipe dog. 



The antiquated foolery about slow dogs, is 

 only kept up by a set of scribblers, who, while 

 cudgelling their brains to glorify American field 

 sports, ever seem pathetically to lament their ex- 



