98 Sporting Notes in the Far East. 



shooting over the old dog, in the cultivated plain that runs away 

 inland from the town. I shall have a word to say about these 

 paper-chases later on. 



As for the shooting ; snipe are in full swing in the first week in 

 September, but so persistently are they netted by the natives, that 

 a sportsman has but a very poor chance. The snarers work at 

 night : their method being ; if in a marsh, with their mattocks, 

 to turn over about forty square yards of rushes, &c., thus 

 making inviting feeding grounds for the snipe ; then at dusk, they 

 hang a very fine meshed net (reaching to a perpendicular 

 height of about ten feet), right across the freshly turned ground ; 

 this net being supported at each end by a couple of long thin poles. 

 This done, one individual will at dusk secrete himself close by the 

 net, with a call; the others then start to walk about distant parts of the 

 snipe ground, and so flush and keep the birds on the move, which on 

 circling overhead, will hear the call, go to it, and seeing new ground 

 close by, will swoop down, only to get themselves irretrievably hung 

 up, with their heads through the net. 



The natives, if possible, prefer to set these nets over narrow 

 strips of water, instead of marshland. It saves a great deal of 

 manual labour ; and not only that, snipe are very fond of flitting 

 over water, at night-fall. 



I have at one time and another, shot a good many quail and 

 pigeons on this plain ; and there is always a good chance of duck 



