286 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



October, November, and December, or even later. I have 

 myself made satisfactory bags as late as March on the 

 Howrah side of the Hooghly, and within a few miles of the 

 Government House, on the low grounds, which are the last to 

 dry up, and on which the birds congregate thickly before 

 their annual migration northwards. 



After hog-hunting and tiger-shooting, snipe have afforded 

 me the best and most certain sport, and one to which I have 

 been extremely partial, notwithstanding its evil reputation as 

 unwholesome and health-destroying. Speaking from a long 

 experience, I have not found it injurious, proper and reason- 

 able precautions being taken. It is, no doubt, excessively 

 fatiguing, and those who follow it in the hot months of Sep- 

 tember and October must, as a matter of necessity, be pre- 

 pared to sustain the burning rays of the sun on their heads 

 and bodies, while their feet are chilled in the mud and water 

 of the swamps and rice-fields. This sounds very alarming ; 

 nevertheless I do not hesitate to affirm that a man in fairly 

 good health and condition, properly dressed and shod, and 

 lastly, of temperate habits, may safely indulge in this sport 

 without any danger greater than that of exposure to extreme 

 heat, and perhaps excessive exertion when the ground is 

 heavier than usual. 



Most men who have followed this sport for any length of 

 time have constructed for themselves a code of rules and 

 regulations based upon their personal experiences. I have 

 done the same, of course, and, without presuming to claim 

 any superiority for it, I offer mine for the acceptance or rejec- 

 tion of young sportsmen as they may think proper, merely 

 stating as a fact that I have found my rules so efficacious as 

 to render this sport not only innocuous, but actually good for 

 both body and mind ; also that to this day, when my head is 

 grey, and my muscles and fibre less tough than they were 

 when that head was brown, I look forward with keen plea- 

 sure to a long day's snipe-shooting as beneficial alike to my 

 health and spirits. 



The first and most important consideration is to guard 



