THE 4MEKICAN SNIPE. 99 



which make successful snipe-shooting one of the greatest 

 feats in the art, and the crack snipe-finder and snipe- 

 killer for the two are one, or rather the second depends 

 mainly on the first one of the first, if not the first artist 

 in the line. 



It is from this necessity of beating, oftentimes, very 

 extensive tracts of land before finding birds, and there- 

 fore beating very rapidly,if you would find birds betimes, 

 that I so greatly prefer and recommend the use of very 

 fast, very highly-bred, and very far-ranging setters, to 

 that of any pointer in the world, for snipe-shooting in the 

 open apart from their great superiority over the pointer 

 in hardihood, endurance of cold, powers of retrieving, 

 beauty and good-nature. 



Of course, speaking of dogs, whether setter, pointer, 

 dropper, or cocking-spaniel, it is understood that we 

 speak of dogs of equal qualities of nose, staunchness to 

 the point, and steadiness at coming to the charge the 

 instant a shot is fired. JSTo dog which does not do ajl 

 these things habitually, and of course, is worth the 

 rope that should hang him ; and no man is worthy the 

 name of a shot or a sportsman, who cannot, and does not, 

 keep his dogs, whether setters, pointers, or cockers, un- 

 der such command that he can turn them to the right or 

 left, bring them to heel, stop them, or down charge them, 

 at two hundred yards distance if it be needful. 



If these things, then, be equal, as they can be made 

 equal, though I admit a setter to be more difficultly kept 



