AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



89 



Delaware canal, numbers of sportsmen resort thither as a 

 favourite place for shooting Snipe; at times they are scarce 

 even in this place, and then again in vast numbers, so that 

 the indefatigable sportsman is often rewarded for his ex- 

 pense and toil. When this spot was first resorted to, for 

 the purpose of shooting Snipe, I have been informed, that, 

 so great a multitude of these birds have congregated in 

 places, as to rival black-birds in the size of their flocks. 



The Snipe pass the middle States by the latter end of 

 April, and reach their places of incubation, in the more 

 northern climate, in the early part of May, where they 

 remain until October, whence they return, and again afford 

 amusement to our sportsmen, during the Indian Summer; 

 at this period they are generally more fat and tender than 

 in the spring, being mostly young birds. They finally 

 return to the southern States, and winter in the marshy and 

 rice grounds, with which those States abound. 



Altliough these birds are strictly migratory, there are 

 instances when they remain with us through both summer 

 and winter, as I have several times shot them in the heat 

 of the former, and the severities of the latter. 



In habit, the Snipe is a solitary bird, and performs its 

 journey alone; but, as has been stated before, they concen- 

 trate in particularly rich feeding grounds, in such quanti- 

 ties, that when disturbed, their rise is so simultaneous, as 

 to have the appearance of flocks, and they will hover 

 around in large bodies, unwilling to leave the spot, until 

 they either disperse, or settle again in the grass, but their 

 arrival at, and departure from, these places, is solitary. 

 When this game is plentiful, I would advise the young 

 sportsman, by all means, to practice on it in preference to 

 any other; it is clear shooting, no objects interpose to dis- 

 concert the mind, and direct it from the game ; conse- 

 quently, there is more time for deliberation. No. 9 shot, 

 is sufficiently large for the purpose, as it requires but a 

 slight wound to bring them to the ground — and one day's 

 exercise with prudence, after these birds, will initiate the 

 beginner into the science of shooting, more completely, 

 than practising. a, whole week at useless swallows, or slug- 

 gish rail. ' I. 



REPLY TO "SPORTSMAN." 



Messrs. Editors, 



YoTjR correspondent, the " Sportsman," has evinced so 

 much courtesy in his remarks on my essay on Chesapeake 

 Duck Shooting, that, though differing in sentiment, I feel 

 much pleasure in replying to his " Stricture." With 

 respect to his first observation, on the principle of aiming 

 Z 



in advance of a bird, when at a great distance, the necessity 

 of it has been so much an axiom with old duck shooters, 

 that every argument with them would fail in overturning 

 it. I imagine, from the sentiments of your correspondent, 

 that his practice has been principally with ordinary game; 

 where the rapidity of flight and distance of object have been 

 so materially different from the case assumed by myself, 

 that a comparison can scarcely be drawn. 



With a partridge or woodcock, the nearness of the object, 

 and the comparative slowness of progression, destroy the 

 necessity for any sensible difference in the direction of 

 aim; for, it has been computed that these birds fly at the 

 rate of from thirty to forty feet in a second of time, and being 

 generally shot at within sixty dards distance, the spread of 

 the load will cover all deficiency. 



With a bird at eighty or one hundred yards, whose 

 motion is nearly ninety feet in that time, there can 

 be no doubt of the absolute necessity for a certain allow- 

 ance. Throwing aside the spreading of the shot, and 

 estimating the load but as a single mass like a bullet, the 

 subject assumes a more simple shape, and it is thus I will 

 consider it. If the shooter ceases to move his gun when 

 he begins to pull the trigger, there can be no question of the 

 loss of time even with the most rapid motion of the lock; 

 but I will take the fairest position of the matter, and allow 

 that the gun is still covering the bird when the load is 

 actually at the muzzle. The diagram before us, will assist 

 in explaining (he philosophy of the subject. 



I will consider A the breech of the 

 gun, which is, for all purposes, suf- *_e 

 ficiently a point or centre of motion, 

 and B the muzzle. A C the posi- 

 tion of the gun when the shooter 

 commences the operation of firing, 

 E the bird at that moment; and tak- 

 ing a course that vi'ill bring it when 

 at its nearest point, at a distance of 

 one hundred yards from the person. 

 We will suppose, although the relative proportions of dis- 

 tance are not accurate in the design, that the process of 

 pulling the trigger, and the passage of the load from the 

 breech to the muzzle, occupies one second of time, and that 

 during that interval, the muzzle has travelled to B, which 

 we will assume as ten feet, the length of the barrel, of 

 course changing the arc, and the bird has arrived at F, or 

 eighty-seven feet beyond E. Allowing the load to be 

 attached to the muzzle, and the same rate of motion con- 

 tinued, it would be under the influence of a power of a 

 momentum of ten feet in a second, and which, in another 

 second would carry it to D. But presuming this momen- 

 tum was received, and the attachment to the gun destroyed. 



