UPLAND SHOOTING. 
145 
subsidence or evaporation, abounds with food of the kind they 
most relish ; and in such places they are often seen to feed. But 
in such, as the ground is either bare or but sparsely covered, they 
will rarely lie, so as to afford sport, until late in the season, w'hen 
the young grass has acquired some height—when the sun has 
gained power, and repose and epicurean habits have rendered the 
Snipe tame and lazy. 
If, however, we can find ground such as I have described, inter¬ 
spersed with tussocky bogs and tufts of long grass, affording shelter 
to the birds, into which they will run, and among which they 
will skulk in ordinary weather, so soon as they discover the ap¬ 
proach of intruders, the chance of sport will be very considerable. 
In cold, dry winds, however, the birds will not even feed , 
much less lie to the dog, on such ground ; and consequently we 
must in such weather look for them in very different places; 
places, indeed, in which no books of natural history, that I know, 
would lead us to seek them, and in some of which the authori¬ 
ties tell us they are never to be found. 
But, to proceed in order; the Snipe when flushed never rises 
down wind, the resistance of the air appearing to be necessary to 
enable him to get under way. On his first rising, which he does 
for the most part about breast-high, he hangs on the air a little, 
before he gathers wing, and then darts away up wind, if possible, 
if not, across wind, tack and tack, with extreme rapidity, and 
with a zig-zag flight, which renders them puzzling objects to a 
beginner. I think, however, that to a person accustomed to their 
motions, they are as easy a bird to kill as any that flies. Mr. 
Audubon states, in allusion to this supposed difficulty of killing 
Snipe, that he who can kill thirty in succession, without missing 
one, is a good hand at any kind of shooting. I suppose Mr. 
Audubon is speaking ironically; for if by can kill , he means 
habitually , or even frequently kills , he speaks of an impossibility. 
No man ever lived who could kill , in that sense, either thirty 
Snipe, or thirty of any other bird that flies, in succession. I 
have seen many crack shots in my life, both here and in Eng¬ 
land ; but I never saw the man, and never expect to see him, 
