402 SHOOTING. 



the moors and downs, when they can seldom be 

 approached by the shooter. The snipes that re- 

 main during summer rear their young on our 

 marshes. The season for snipe shooting is not de- 

 fined or limited by any legislative enactment ; but 

 it is unsportsmanlike to shoot snipes between Feb- 

 ruary and the 12th of August. 



The jack-snipe makes its appearance contem- 

 poraneously with the woodcock, except that it is 

 not seen in March. It is so diminutive a bird as 

 to be scarcely worth the sportsman's notice. It 

 may afford sport to the tyro, and the shooting at it 

 will teach him how to bring down the large, snipe, 

 for its flight is nearly similar, but much slower. 



The common or full snipe is a shy bird when in 

 company, but when alone will allow the shooter to 

 approach within a dozen paces of it before it springs. 

 When it does spring, however, it moves with a 

 velocity that defies the epithet slow ! We find it 

 best to shoot as soon as possible. The shooter will 

 bring down a snipe with much less difficulty at 

 from fifteen to twenty paces than at any other dis- 

 tance. The aim is thus taken just before the bird 

 begins to make its cross flights, but before it has 

 attained its full speed. The irregularity of its 

 flight is of little consequence during the first and 

 second twirling, before the bird is safely on the 

 wing, since its flight is then comparatively tardy. 

 But let the snipe fly ten yards from whence it 

 sprang let it be, for instance, twenty-five paces 

 distant from the gun, it is then at the top of its 

 speed, and in the very midst of its sidelong, ellip- 



