THE FIELD.—SNIPE-SHOOTING. 269 
creeks or impenetrable morasses, and sometimes he will 
lay down a winged bird, which will instantly run off again 
and give double trouble. 
19th. Never break a sporting rule, in order to recover 
a wounded bird or get a shot at alive ona 
20th. Never lose your temper ! 
If you can keep the last of these rules, you can 
without doubt keep them all; and if you do so, though 
it will be painful and difficult at first, it will gradually 
become habit and grow into a second nature; and when 
this degree of excellence is acquired, you will have really 
become a steady and good sportsman, so far as the field- 
work of dogs, and may even undertake at a pinch to break 
a brace for yourself. 
And here, before proceeding in its turn to the sport 
of the next season, though I might, perhaps, have better men- 
tioned it above, I will state, as the most befitting place, 
that during spring snipe-shooting, the Virginia rail—Rallus 
