146 SHIKAR SKETCHES. 



Jack snipe are pretty evenly distributed all 

 over India, but they select denser cover than 

 other snipe do, with the exception of the wood, 

 or solitary snipe. They are seldom found in 

 great numbers, and three or four in a day's snipe- 

 shooting are the most that have ever fallen to my 

 gun. 



A friend of mine, however, a general officer 

 and keen sportsman, told me that he had in about 

 twenty minutes bagged nine couple in a bit of 

 ground only some fifty yards square, covered with 

 reeds and flags.* Such a bag of Jack snipe is, 

 however, I think, exceptional. 



It may be fancy on my part, but to me the 

 shooting of a Jack snipe always affords a certain 

 amount of pleasure. The shot is always a satis- 

 factory one ; for, though his floating, butterfly- 

 like sort of flight makes the shot an apparently 

 easy one, sportsmen will, I think, in general bear 

 me out in saying that is not so ; and perhaps from 

 this reason I think more Jack snipe are missed 

 than any other bird. In addition to the gratifi- 

 cation of shooting him, he is such a game, neat, 

 glossy-looking little fellow, that handling him 

 is 'alone to a certain extent a pleasure. 



Partridges must come next in our list, and of 

 these, three varieties are met with on the plains of 



* Major-General W. C. Anderson, C.S.I. 



