SNIPE 



SNIPE shooting is the fly fishing of the shot gun. 

 There are only three species of snipe that regularly 

 visit England, and only one that breeds here. This is the full 

 snipe. The great solitary or double snipe is rarely seen, and 

 as a sporting bird, therefore, does not count. The jack snipe 

 is far the most beautiful, and is met with some years in fair 

 quantities, but is rarely found in greater proportion than one 

 to five of the full snipe. The jack snipe is rarely missed by a 

 deliberate marksman, but a snap shooter who is used to the 

 quick and zigzag rise of the full snipe is often able to miss the 

 little jacks, for their flight is almost that of a butterfly. Be- 

 sides, the jack snipe has a very trying habit of pitching down 

 suddenly as if it were badly wounded, when it becomes tempting 

 to the shooter to go and pick it up with his gun at safety. 

 Then the little creature is remarkably hard to move a second 

 time, and thus suspicion becomes apparent certainty, so that 

 when the shooter is about to give up all hope of finding the 

 dead bird the quick one flies slowly away, unharmed by a hasty 

 shot, or by the concentrated language which sometimes is 

 mistakenly supposed to follow. The jack snipe is the 

 comedian of the gunner's quarry. This 2 oz. bird is not much 

 of a mouthful for a big retriever, and the only reason it is 

 not usually injured by even tender-mouthed dogs is probably 

 because it and all the other species of the family are naturally 

 offensive to the taste of the dog. They never would be retrieved 

 from choice, and the duty has generally to be forced upon the 

 young canine assistant of whatever breed it may be. Not 

 many jack snipe come to us before October, but a few have 



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