To discover a living snipe on the ground is indeed a test
of good eyesight; for as he slips in and out among the brown withered
flags and the grey grass it requires not only a quick eye but the inbred
sportsman's instinct of perception (if such a phrase is permissible) to
mark him out.
If your shot has missed and merely splashed up the water or rattled
against bare branches, then step swiftly behind a tree-trunk, and stay
in ambuscade, keeping a sharp watch on him as he circles round high up
in the air. Very often in a few minutes he will come back in a wide
sweep, and drop scarcely a gun-shot distant in the same watercourse,
when a second shot may be obtained. The little jack snipe, when flushed,
will never fly far, if shot at several times in succession, still
settling fifty or sixty yards farther on, and is easily bagged.
Coming silently as possible round a corner, treading gently on the grass
still white with hoar-frost in the shadow of the bushes, you may chance
to spring a stray woodcock, which bird, if you lose a moment, will put
the hedge between him and you. Artists used to seek for certain feathers
which he carries, one in each wing, thinking to make of them a more
delicate brush than the finest camel's hair.
In the evening I used to hide in the osier-beds on the edge of a great
water-meadow; for now that the marshes are drained, and the black earth
of the fens yields a harvest of yellow corn, the broad level meads which
are irrigated to fertilise them are among the chief inland resorts of
wild fowl.
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