‘THE FIELD.—SNIPE-SHOOTING. 261 
Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas, they swarm in the 
marshes and rice grounds, throughout all the winter, and 
afford unlimited sport to the country gentlemen, and bon- 
nes bouches to the epicures of those States, until the 
advent of spring. 
In regard to snipe-shooting, as a distinct branch of 
sport, there remains no more to be said; but a few rules 
for general deportment in the field, and for dog-manage- 
ment, may be, perhaps, better stated here than elsewhere; 
as they are applicable to all shooting, especially all open 
shooting, and may be laid down once for all. 
In the first place, when shooting in company—and 
here, I will observe, that unless in battue shooting, which 
is never practised in the United States, every person above 
two is one too many, unless where two parties, each of 
two persons, can shoot advantageously, not together, but 
in concert, as on opposite sides of a river, so as to drive 
the game backward and forward, from one to the other—it 
is well that the young shooter should accustom himself to 
beat the ground, and shoot, on either hand of his com- 
panion; as persons are often found who cannot, or will not, 
shoot on the right hand; to whom, if older men and older 
sportsmen, our beginner must yield the pas. 
The cause of this preference is this; that, of cross 
shots, the bird which flies to the left is by far the easiest, 
that to the right, the most difficult, of all shots; and as it 
is the invariable rule never to shoot at birds, when two are 
shooting in company, which fly toward the companion, the 
left-hand beater has the chance of the fairest shots. 
In the second place, never, under any circumstances, 
