54 VARIETIES OP SHOOTING. 



learns to " potter" in a way which will unfit him for par- 

 tridge or grouse shooting afterwards. As snipe are beat for 

 down wind, a finer nose than usual is required. 



DRESS, ETC. 



The essential part of the dress for snipe shooting is that 

 for protecting the feet and legs from the wet, which is in- 

 separable from the sport. Unlike grouse and partridge 

 shooting, a pony cannot be used on this ground, and the deli- 

 cate- constitution ed sportsman cannot in any way partake of 

 the amusement without risk. Patent leather boots may be 

 made to be quite waterproof, but they soon wear out ; and 

 if the sportsman is anxious about his feet, let him purchase 

 the indian-rubber boots imported from America, which are 

 the only articles entirely to be relied on. When lined with 

 woollen material they are tolerably free from the unpleasant 

 sensation of wet and cold which attends upon confined per- 

 spiration ; and on this account they are apt to cause the very 

 thing they are intended to prevent, and after strong exercise, 

 if the wearer stands or sits still for a short time he will feel 

 as if he had been walking through a brook. Good calf-skin 

 boots, dressed with boiled linseed oil and bees' wax, are after 

 all the best articles, and with these and leather gaiters, a 

 strong healthy man may bid defiance to cold and rheumatism, 

 so long as he keeps moving and avoids the excessive use of 

 spirituous liquors. 



MANAGEMENT IN SHOOTING. 



The flight of the snipe is so eccentric that unless the 

 shooter is aware of it he is not likely to be very successful. 

 If this bird is shot at when it has fairly got on the wing, and 

 while it is making those right and left shoots which it prac- 

 tises till it fancies its safety is secured, there is little chance 

 of bringing it " to bag." Hence the plan to be adopted is 

 either to bring it down almost before it is on the wing, 

 which must be done when it gets up at any distance from 

 the shooter, or when it lies pretty close (as is generally the 

 case), to wait patiently till it is thirty or forty yards off, by 

 which time it begins to fly steadily, and then fire. When 



