SNIPE-SHOOTING. 19 



if wet, causes the birds to disperse over the whole country, while 

 if it be dry they remain in the sotos or marshes, and when 

 flushed return almost immediately. Some of the best sport I 

 have had with them was by waiting in favourite ground while 

 they kept coming in, flying high up overhead, and then swooping 

 down and pitching within a few yards. Fifty couple have been 

 bagged in a day by one gun, and that a muzzle-loader, thirty or 

 twenty-eight couple a gun per day being often obtained. The 

 proportion of Jack-Snipe is about the same as in England, 

 and they keep to the most wet and muddy spots. Snipe, 

 as a rule, in Andalucia are far wilder than in other countries, 

 which is no doubt caused by the nature of the marshes, 

 which, often quite dry at the end of summer, are in winter 

 regular lakes, only at their edges affording any resting-places 

 for the birds, the cover being usually thin and bare. 



There are many acres of ground flooded with water, from 

 about six inches to a foot in depth, the whole dotted over 

 with tussocks standing an inch or two above the water, and 

 about a foot apart from each other. This tussocky ground 

 is most difficult both to walk over and shoot on, as the tufts 

 are not broad enough to stand on with both feet, and these 

 slippery lumps of mud and grass standing above the water 

 enable the Snipe to see a long distance, and cause them to 

 rise very wildly ; while they also have a most provoking habit 

 of flying up just as you are trying to balance yourself on one 

 of the tussocks. The result, if you fire, is most probably a miss, 

 and down you slip into the water, lucky if on your legs and 

 not on your knees or, as happened to me more than once, on 

 your face. There is, however, one point in favour of all these 

 sotos : they have a firm bottom, the mud is never deep, and 

 there are no quaking bogs or dangerous morasses as in Ireland. 

 A retriever, it is almost needless to add, is perfectly indispensable 

 for this kind of sport, saving (in addition to many birds that 

 would otherwise be lost) much time and the bad temper which 



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