THE bishop's plea. 
145 
sought by sportsmen. In a work entitled ^ Shooting Sim- 
plified/ by J. D. Doiigall, we read of a curions connection 
between snufF-taking and snipe-shooting : — 
The popular belief that a Snipe makes the most difficult of all 
shots has arisen from its comparative smallness, its sudden rise, and 
swift corkscrew flight. "When shooting Snipes over dogs, the best 
mode of killing them may be reduced, generally, to two. These two 
are, either to fire the moment the Snipe rises, or to give it time to 
get over the tortuous, and resume the direct flight. Thus extremes 
meet, and one man is a crack shot at Snipe for being very quick, and 
another quite as crack for being very slow. One of the latter caste 
manages thus : — Carrying his gun over his shoulder, in the other 
hand he holds, between finger and thumb, a pinch of snufF. A Snipe 
rises ; with due deliberation he inhales, into each nostril, the titillat- 
ing grains; down from the shoulder comes the deadly tube ; it is 
levelled, fired, and Scolopax is done for. Wonderful analogy dis- 
covered by this original thinking philosopher, between the period 
necessary to take snufF with full enjoyment, and the mode of flight 
of the poor heather bleater ! 
Let not our readers suppose that we would encourage a 
taste for Snipe or any other bird shooting. Rather would 
we commend to their notice the sentiments with which 
Bishop Mant concludes his descriptive lines 
There too, perhaps, although more rare, 
While yet the groves their foliage wear, 
For till the wintry months draw nigh, 
He northward loves a cooler sky, 
Becluse in Cambria's humid fells. 
Or Scotia's dark and rushy dells, 
Or where o'er vale or mountain's head 
Green Erin's heathery swamps are spread : 
You '11 hear remote the feeble pipe 
Shrill sounding of the wakeful Snipe, 
And catch receding from the view 
His spots of black and rusty hue ; 
As starting from his reedy fen 
He flies abrupt the approach of men, 
And with quick wing and zigzag flight 
Dazzles the unpractis'd fowler's sight. 
What others tell, the Muse recites : 
For, child of peace, she not delights 
The fowler's fellowship to claim. 
Nor deals she in the slaughterous game 
K 
