98 AMERICAN GAME, 
so that they will still have the air in their noses, he com- 
pels the bird to rise before him, and cross to the right on 
the left hand, affording him a clear and close shot, instead 
of whistling straight away up wind, dead ahead of him, 
exposing the smallest surface to his aim, and frequently 
getting off without a shot, as it will constantly do, if the 
shooter beats wp wind, even with the best and steadiest 
dogs in the world. The knack of shooting snipe, as some 
people who can’t do it choose to call it, is no other than 
the knack of shooting quick, shooting straight, and shoot- 
ing well ahead of cross shots—this done with a gun that 
will throw its charge close at forty to fifty yards, with 
14 oz. of No. 8 shot, equal measures of shot and of 
Brough’s diamond-grain powder, will fetch three snipe 
out of every five, which is great work, in spite of what 
the cockneys say, who pick their shots, never firing at a 
hard bird, or one over twenty paces away, and then boast 
of killing twenty shots in succession. Verbwm sap. 
The great difference of the grounds to be beaten in dift 
ferent weathers; the difficulty in determining which 
ground to assign to which day; the immense extent of 
country to be traversed, if birds are scarce or wild, or if : 
there are many varieties of soil, covert, and feeding in 
one range, and the sportsman fail in his two or three first 
beats in finding game, and therefore have to persevere 
till he do find them, these, and the hardness of the walk- 
ing in rotten quagmires and deep morasses, affording no 
sure foot-hold, and often knee-deep in water, these it is 
