BAY-SNIPE SHOOTING. 187 



patience, much experience, and great qualities of 

 mind and body ; and few are the sportsmen who ever 

 deserve the compliment paid by old Paulus Enos of 

 Quogue, when he remarked, " Colonel P. is a werry 

 destructive man — a werry destructive man in a flock 

 of birds." 



It is true that quail-shooting is almost a certainty; 

 and day after day of fair weather, with well-trained 

 animals and good marksmen, will produce nearly the 

 same average, so that an entire failure will be almost 

 impossible ; whereas, with bay-snipe everything, in 

 the first instance, depends upon the flight ; and if 

 there are no birds, the result must be a total blank ; 

 but when the reason is propitious — and this can be 

 determined by the experienced sportsman \vith tole- 

 rable accuracy — the sport is prodigious, and the 

 number of shots enormous. 



Nor is it so easy to kill the gentle game that 

 approaches the decoys with such entire confidence, 

 and often at so moderate a pace. The upland sports- 

 man, who can cover the quail through the thick 

 scrub-oaks, or the woodcock in the dense foliage of 

 the shady swamp, and send his charge after them 

 with astonishing precision, and who will expect easy 

 work witli the bay-snipe, will find himself wonder- 

 fully bothered by their curious motions and irre- 

 gular flight, till he has acquired the knack of anti- 

 cipating their intentions. He will learn that their 

 speed is irregular; that while at times they will 

 hang almost motionless in the air, at others they will 

 dart past at the rate of a hundred miles an hour ; 



