98 AMERICAN GAME. 



so that they will still have the air in their noses, he com- 

 pels the bird to rise before him. and cross to the right on 

 the left hand, affording him a clear and close shot, instead 

 of whistling straight away up wind, dead ahead of him, 

 exposing the smallest surface to his aim, and frequently 

 getting off without a shot, as it will constantly do, if the 

 shooter beats up wind, even with the best and steadiest 

 dogs in the world. The knack of shooting snipe, as some 

 people who can't do it choose to call it, is no other than 

 the knack of shooting quick, shooting straight, and shoot- 

 ing well ahead of cross shots this done with a gun that 

 will throw its charge close at forty to fifty yards, with 

 lj oz. of No. 8 shot, equal measures of shot and of 

 Brough's diamond-grain powder, will fetch three snipe 

 out of every five, which is great work, in spite of what 

 the cockneys say, who pick their shots, never firing at a 

 hard bird, or one over twenty paces away, and then boast 

 of killing twenty shots in succession. Yerbum sap. 



The great difference of the grounds to be beaten in dif- 

 ferent weathers ; the difficulty in determining which 

 ground to assign to which day ; the immense extent of 

 country to be traversed, if birds are scarce or wild, or if 

 there are many varieties of soil, covert, and feeding in 

 one range, and the sportsman fail in his two or three first 

 beats in finding game, and therefore have to persevere 

 till he do find them, these, and the hardness of the walk- 

 ing in rotten quagmires and deep morasses, affording no 

 sure foot-hold, and often knee-deep in water, these it is 



