154 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
flattering enough to say, did know something about shooting, 
should be such a flat as to shoot Snipe down-wind. In the even¬ 
ing he came into the bar-room, and there found, first of all, that 
I had beaten him by some half-dozen birds, which he said he 
expected ; and, secondly, that it was for a reason, and not for 
the want of one, that I shot Snipe down-wind. He admitted at 
once, that he saw throughout the day that I was getting more 
and better shots than he, whereat he marvelled, seeing he knew 
himself better dogged than I ; but that he still marvelled why 
I should shoot down-wind. He was, however, open to convic¬ 
tion, and was, perhaps, not sorry at having a reason to give for 
being beaten. 
Double shots at Snipe are by no means uncommon—com¬ 
moner, I think, than at any other species of game—for although, 
as a general rule, the snipe is a solitary bird, both in his habits 
of flight and feeding, and acts independently of his neighbors, 
you will usually find numbers of them feeding nearly together, 
and rising nearly at the same time, because alarmed by the same 
sound. Under these circumstances, however, they do not usu¬ 
ally fly off together, like a bevy of quail, or a plump of wild 
fowl, but scatter, each at his own will. Now as the wildest 
birds always spring first, it often happens that your discharge, at 
a long shot, flushes another much nearer by; I therefore strongly 
urge it on beginners to be a little patient, and not to blaze away 
both barrels in succession at the same bird, or even at two birds, 
nearly out of distance, since by doing so they will very often 
lose a good chance of bagging a bird close at hand. 
It is, moreover, a very absurd and unsportsmanlike practice 
to fire at Snipe out of shot, yet it is a very common one. The 
Snipe is a very small bird, and offers, particularly when flying 
directly from the shooter, an inconceivably small target. It is 
not possible that one can be killed, with anything like certainty, 
at above fifty yards,—I name an extreme limit. Now, in ordi¬ 
nary weather, the odds are about three to one, that a bird flushed, 
and not uselessly shot at, at this distance, will alight again with¬ 
in three or four hundred yards, or upward, and perhaps afford 
