SNIPE SHOOTING. 19 



uncertainty, its essentially wild surroundings, and the satisfaction 



of finding one's game, and holding one's gun straight. I may be 



unduly enthusiastic, but to me there is a charm in the mere 



splashing through a bit of snipe bog, a thrill engendered by the 



" sc-a-a-pe" of a Snipe, as he shapes his tortuous flight, that the 



whirr of "twice twenty thousand cock pheasants on wing" 



never awakens. I know that my game is thoroughly wild. I have 



looked for him in the proper place, and approached him in the 



right direction, and if, as I catch a glint of his white under-wings 



I have " straight powder '' — wh)', I glow with pride and pleasure. 



Foolish, perhaps, to let a little bird of some 5 oz. in weight 



influence one so ; but brother sportsmen will back me in my 



assertion, and those who know not the delights of shooting the 



Snipe can, at any rate, testify to his value as a dish. Though in 



other climes there exist many varieties of Snipe, in Great Britain 



only three are commonly known : the Great or Solitary Snipe, the 



Full Snipe and the Jack Snipe. The first of these is a very rare 



bird, for few sportsmen have so much as seen the Solitary Snipe, 



and though some are recorded as having been shot or seen every 



year, they are few and far between. I will therefore dismiss him 



from the list with the hope that when one gets up before any 



reader of A Year of Sport and Natural History, he may " hold 



straight," and thus earn distinction as having shot one of the 



rarest of British birds ; and here I may add that such good fortune 



once fell to my lot some eighteen years ago. The place was 



Cove Common, Aldershot, and on that occasion I expended five 



cartridges, and bagged one Solitary Snipe, two Full, and two Jack 



Snipe. 



Though in Scotland and Ireland, and, indeed, in some parts of 



D 2 



