THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
and allow him to find a few if possible before he sees any other kind of 
game. Dogs are generally most keen after the kind of winged game at 
which they were first entered and encouraged to hunt for, and they will 
remember this all their lives. This distaste for snipe is shared also by 
many retrievers, and the usefulness and value of an otherwise good dog 
is frequently lessened by its absolute refusal to pick up a snipe when it 
has fallen into a thick tangle of rushes, with just enough vigour left to 
hide itself from view. 
Though many a snipe is shot during grouse -driving, it is only on very 
few estates where driving snipe is regularly practised, the chief reason 
being that they are not easy to drive except under especially favourable 
circumstances. Occasionally some favourite haunt is so placed that the 
occupants can be driven over a high hedge or other convenient place of 
concealment for the guns ; or the latter may be posted between two 
favourite bogs in the line of flight which is usually followed ; or again on 
a bog, which lends itself to the purpose, butts or hiding places may be 
arranged, somewhere in the centre. Luck must always be a considerable 
element in the matter of success, but good management is also very 
important. The judicious placing of flankers is generally very necessary, 
and these should be posted well away (where the snipe cannot fail to 
observe them before they are flushed), and with flags to wave continually 
when the birds are on the wing. It should be remembered that snipe do 
not usually fly so high, or take such long flights, on a perfectly calm day 
as they do when it is rough, and therefore if it is quite possible to select 
your own time, a quiet day should be your choice. In boisterous weather 
snipe are very apt to soar high at once and fly away out of ken. The drivers 
should go slowly and search every likely spot, for frequently snipe lie so 
closely they may be easily passed by; and it is well for the men to be 
accompanied by a steady old setter or retriever used to snipe, who will 
not miss a bird if allowed to hunt within close range, and especially will 
put up any close -lying jack snipe. 
Driven snipe are not difficult to kill after they have flown a short distance, 
for they soon give up the zigzag flight, so puzzling to many a man when 
walking them up, good as he may be at other game. The drivers should not 
be further apart than twenty yards or so if the covert is good ; and a little 
talking is advantageous rather than otherwise, for birds which get up 
at a distance are very likely to go forward, while those not flushed till 
the line has reached them are quite likely to break back. 
286 
