16 WILD LIFE IN CHINA. 



of a cricketer "out in the country" getting a number of pellets 

 (intended for winged game) through the most exposed por- 

 tion of the flannels as he stooped to pick up a ball! Guns 

 were kept in the cricket pavilion readj' for a sudden rush 

 when a wisp was seen to alight. I have myself shot winter 

 snipe within 106 yards of the back of the General Hospital, 

 where they came to the ice-ponds, and one of those unac- 

 countably popular patches, which snipe will frequent if any 

 are about, is now covered by part of the Shanghai Railway 

 Station. 



Snipe-shooting needs above all things a well-fitting gun. 

 I knew a man here who was once asked to try a new weapon 

 on behalf of a friend. He did so, and when the first ten 

 snipe were brought to bag with it, one after another without 

 a miss, he concluded that it would be a very good thing if 

 the friend bought that gun so that it might be borrowed! A 

 12-bore is unquestionably best for the ordinary man, though 

 really first-rate shots do excellently with the lighter 16-bore. 

 Taken altogether, snipe-shooting is as good a sport as can 

 be found, and when there are such admirable artists as Thor- 

 burn and Millais to depict birds for us, and such ardent 

 lovers of nature as Mr. Selous to write, there is prepared, 

 for all who care to buy, an indoor delight which ranks only 

 second to that beneath the vault of Heaven's blue. 



