THE REFERENDUM 



477 



second — the time, in fact, occupied in con- 

 verting their upward rising from the ground 

 into actual flight — they are nearly or quite 

 motionless as far as kiteral or forward move- 

 ment is concerned. It seems almost imperti- 

 nent to describe the infinitesimal check that 

 a springing snipe must sustain before he can 

 dart away, by the word motionless. Never- 

 theless, it is a physical or ballistic fact, and 

 one to which five out of six of the snipe in 

 your bag will owe their doom. 



Many are absolutely unable to perceive this 

 check at all. It is, in fact, almost impercep- 

 tible, except on rough, windy days, when it 

 will often be exaggerated into an obvious 

 "hover," unless, as occasionally happens with 

 close-lying snipe in a gale of wind, the bird 

 is blown and tumbled bodily down-wind, with 

 never an attempt at a struggle against it. This 

 is the first and greatest advantage of walk- 

 ing down-wind. Secondly, the breast of a 

 snipe being snowy white, whilst the back is in 

 almost perfect harmony with the dark yellow 

 and reds of the ground from which it usually 

 springs, it is an immense gain if you can 

 force the bird to rise with its breast towards 

 yourself. A snipe tearing up-wind close to 

 the ground is an exasperatingly invisible ob- 

 ject even on a clear day, and if the light is 

 bad you may often see nothing of him but his 

 squeak. 



There is another advantage, and that is 

 that a bird springing towards you as you 

 walk down-wind is obliged to rise to at least 

 the height of your shoulder, the most con- 

 venient elevation of any for aiming, whereas 

 on the opposite plan he can, and usually does, 

 skim away an inch or so off the ground, an 

 exemplification of the poetry of motion and 

 "protective coloration," that only a philoso- 

 pher could admire at the time. 



Again, it must be urged, in favor of what 

 sailors call "scudding," that the shooter will 

 be spared the annoyance of finding a second 

 barrel or a right-and-left, interfered with by 

 that curse of the game gun, "blow back." I 

 have shot with nearly every powder, both 

 black and nitros, and have never found any 

 of them entirely free from this nuisance. It 

 is true that in most of the better brands of 

 nitros what used to be a positive danger has 

 been reduced to a very occasional discom- 

 fort : but having once experienced the smart 

 of a particle of unconsumed powder in his 

 eye, the sportsman may find that his shoot- 

 ing for the rest of the day will be as inju- 

 riously affected by the mere dread of its re- 

 currence as it would do if he were certain 

 that every shot were going to give him a 

 dusting. 



No man can shoot well unless he can en- 

 tirely detach his mind from every consider- 

 ation but the bird rising before him. At any 

 rate, however little you may be afflicted with 



this description of nerves, it is a real handi- 

 cap that you will do well to avoid by walk- 

 ing down-wind when and where possible. 



Apart from the two points mentioned, it is 

 undoubtedly a great saving of physical labor 

 if you can run before the wind instead of 

 beating against it, and in snipe shooting every 

 ounce of strength uselessly expended is likely 

 to be so much loss to the bag, to say nothing 

 of the enjoyment. 



Finally, it is in any case harder to keep the 

 eyes wide open and clear if a cold or strong 

 wind is blowing straight into them, than if 

 they are comfortably sheltered on "the lee 

 side of your face." And the human optic 

 must be in particularly good working order 

 to gauge correctly the flight of an erratic lit- 

 tle object traveling at goodness knows how 

 many miles an hour along a road which cer- 

 tainly can not be called straight. 



Down-wind shooting is certainly the lux- 

 ury of snipe-shooting, although occasionally 

 — very occasionally — there will be a sameness 

 in the description of shots that will not com- 

 mend itself in a sport of which variety is 

 the very life and soul. 



Snipe would not be worth shooting if they 

 were easy to shoot, and it must be confessed 

 that a long walk may be taken down-wind 

 over open country without the sportsman's 

 especially "snipey" qualities being very se- 

 verely tested. There is a delightful experi- 

 ence, too, that is peculiarly the property of 

 the down-wind shooter, and that is when a 

 couple of birds spring simultaneously in front 

 of him, and make off in exactly opposite di- 

 rections. It is on such occasions that a right 

 and left is something more than a figure of 

 speech, and a complacent smirk may be for- 

 given the artist who accomplishes it, as he 

 watches his dog trot off to pick up the birds 

 that, lie stone dead "at the extremities of 

 the diameter of a circle of which you are the 

 centre," as a mathematical gunner once ex- 

 pressed it. 



So much for the defense. Against this 

 method the only thing to be urged is the fact 

 that the snipe are far more likely to hear 

 the approach as you advance upon them 

 down-wind than if you were beating up to- 

 wards them from contrary direction. This, 

 though theoretically true, will be found to be 

 of very little importance practically. Very 

 fierce must be the gale that prevents the 

 snipe from hearing your footsteps squelching 

 over the quaggy ground, or through the crisp 

 stiff rushes. The ring of your shots, too, be 

 they never so smothered by the roaring wind, 

 will surely carry a warning to the listening 

 ears of every little bundle of nerves lurking 

 close, perhaps all the closer for its fear, un- 

 der the shelter of tuft and tussock. 



I firmly believe that all solitary fowl, even 

 when resting, are aware of the presence of ? 



