252 MAJSrtJAX FOE TOTTKG SPORTSMEN. 



The best day for snipe-shooting, spring or fall, in 

 spite of all that English authorities say — who, writing 

 ■what is true for one country and climate err not, though 

 they are frequently blamed for error, because readers 

 apply their sayings to another — is not a dark, windy, driz- 

 zling day. A dark day is never favorable for any shooting 

 on the upland, least of all for the shooting of snipe, which 

 are so exactly similar in the coloring of their streaked 

 plumage to the withered grass and sedges among which 

 they live, and over which they fly in such days unusually 

 low and near the ground — that they can hardly be distin- 

 guished except by the glimpses of their white bellies, 

 which they show when they twist. 



Drizzly days are never good for any shooting, unless it 

 is some kind of wild-fowl shooting ; for no ground bird — 

 this rule is invariable and without exception — will squat 

 (without doing which, it never can lie well to the dog), 

 unless the ground or herbage is dry and warm to its 

 breast. 



Windy weather, provided that the wind is from the 

 west or south, and not too high, is advantageous for this 

 sport, for reasons to be given hereafter. 



A mild, sunshiny, soft, and even hot day, with a gentle 

 southerly wind is, then, of all days, the day for the snipe 

 bogs ; and I have invariably found that the hotter the 

 day, if it be humid, with a good deal of gentle air, the 

 closer lie the birds. I have seen the time when they 

 could hardly be kicked up under the dog's nose ; nor is 

 this all; for every old sportsman knows that in such 

 weather the flight of the birds themselves is wholly altered, 



