THE FIELD. SNIPE-SHOOTING. 261 



Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas, they swarm in the 

 marshes and rice grounds, throughout all the winter, and 

 afford unlimited sport to the country gentlemen, and bon- 

 nes bouches to the epicures of those States, until the 

 advent of spring. 



In regard to snipe-shooting, as a distinct branch of 

 sport, there remains no more to be said ; but a few rules 

 for general deportment in the field, and for dog-manage- 

 ment, may be, perhaps, better stated here than elsewhere ; 

 as they are applicable to all shooting, especially all open 

 shooting, and may be laid down once for all. 



In the first place, when shooting in company and 

 here, I will observe, that unless in battue shooting, which 

 is never practised in the United States, every person above 

 two is one too many, unless where two parties, each of 

 two persons, can shoot advantageously, not together, but 

 in concert, as on opposite sides of a river, so as to drive 

 the game backward and forward, from one to the other it 

 is well that the young shooter should accustom himself to 

 beat the ground, and shoot, on either hand of his com- 

 panion ; as persons are often found who cannot, or will not, 

 shoot on the right hand ; to whom, if older men and older 

 sportsmen, our beginner must yield the pas. 



The cause of this preference is this; that, of cross 

 shots, the bird which flies to the left is by far the easiest, 

 that to the right, the most difficult, of all shots ; and as it 

 is the invariable rule never to shoot at birds, when two are 

 shooting in company, which fly toward the companion, the 

 left-hand beater has the chance of the fairest shots. 



In the second place, never, under any circumstances, 



