opinions on the subject of choked barrels for this kind of shooting. My average worked out very badly. Killing a right and left, or, putting in the second barrel at a bird one has missed with the first, is very frequently quite a different thing in the case of snipe from what it is in the case of walkedup partridges. In the latter case, the birds fly straight, and you can fire at any moment you choose; in the former case, you cannot tell how your birds may fly; and the moment at which you must fire, if you are shooting at all steadily, rests with the bird and not with you. I found the necessity of having to hang on to the first shot largely responsible for my bad average. One may, time after time, find one's self dead on a bird at a range at which it is not too near for a cylinder, but too near for a choke, and, failing to pull the trigger at that moment, the bird may travel many yards further before a satisfactory shot can be had.

The gun used for snipe shooting should fit the shooter thoroughly. There are few people who do not shoot below their possible best if they use a gun which fails to fit them in every way.

I am no advocate for a very light gun for snipe shooting. A light gun possesses recommendations

when the going is rough or treacherous, but on no other score. A light gun is conducive to rapid shooting and unsteady aim, whereas steady shooting and steady aim constitute the very essence of successful work on snipe. Let the gun be of ordinary weight and with 30-in. barrels. When, on account of the user's want of strength and stamina, a reduction in weight is really necessary, let the gun be a featherweight 12-bore, shooting reduced charges.

And now as to the size of the shot that should be

used for snipe shooting.

Years ago there were sung to me praises of the deadly effects wrought upon snipe by the use of No. 10 shot. So emphatic was he who sang these praises that, always open to make a full test of anything connected with gunning, I decided at once to give this small shot an exhaustive trial. There happened to be plenty of snipe about at the time. The results, as I had anticipated from the first would be the case, were deplorably unsatisfactory. Up to a certain range, perhaps as lengthy as twenty-five yards, the birds were killed clean enough, but beyond this certain range bird after bird was wounded. Some would fly a few hundred yards and then drop; others, visibly cut about by the shot, would take themselves off as though nothing had happened. Two or three jack were

among the wounded ones. As may be imagined, it was but a short time before I discarded the No. 10 in disgust.

Later on I made a full trial of No. 9 shot for snipe shooting. Though far less objectionable than the No. 10 had proved itself to be, I found it a long way behind No. 8 in its general effects. At ranges at which birds would have been killed clean with No. 8 they were in many instances killed anything but clean with the No. 9. The lighter the shot, the more rapidly does it lose velocity; the loss of velocity of No. 9 shot is such that it ceases to retain the requisite degree of penetration, even for such a small bird as a snipe, at anything beyond very moderate range.

No. 7 is a most useful shot when one is walking after snipe over country where shots at other game are likely to be had. But for snipe shooting proper it is not suitable. It is unnecessarily heavy in the first place; in the second place, it gives too open a pattern. At forty yards, a No. 8 pellet has still velocity enough to kill a snipe as clean as a No. 7 pellet—unless perhaps the birds were struck in some non-vital part, as, for instance, along the back, when the greater shock of the No. 7 pellet might bring it down and the less shock of the No. 8 pellet fail to do so-and for game shooting the performance of shot at ranges

exceeding forty yards is never worth consideration. No size of shot can compare with No. 8 as snipe shot. Its pattern is close enough, its penetration is sufficient and this is all one needs.

There are many who believe that the slightest blow from a shot pellet will bring down a snipe; they would have us assume from what they say that such a thing as a wounded snipe is almost unknown, and that, other things being equal, the snipe is more readily killed than all the rest of the bird creation, the woodcock alone excepted. 'A snipe is never too far off to shoot at,' I have heard repeatedly, but I have never heard it said by anyone who has had much experience among snipe. The question is an interesting one, and worth examination.

I may say at once, as the result of a pretty wide experience of snipe shooting, that, other things being equal, I believe the snipe to be no whit more readily killed than the partridge. Of course everyone knows that, other things being equal, some birds require more shot, possess greater vitality—to use a common term, are 'tougher' than others. Given, for instance, a wood-pigeon and a partridge of the same weight, the wood-pigeon needs more shot than the partridge. The wood-pigeon may be, and I think undoubtedly is, actually a tougher bird than the partridge, harder

in flesh and muscle, harder in frame and bone. Nevertheless, I am quite convinced that constitutional vitality has much more to do with the difference than actual toughness. What apparently less 'tough' bird, what apparently more delicate and easily killed bird, what apparently more tender framed and tender fleshed bird than the golden plover; and yet what bird, other things being equal, more difficult to kill? As a matter of fact, the golden plover, other things being equal, is just about the toughest' bird in existence. The toughness' in the case of the golden plover can only be attributed to excessive vitality.

Harking back to the snipe: In a way appearances tend to lead to a belief that wounded birds among partridges are in far greater proportion to the birds hit than are wounded birds among snipe. One has two shots at partridges; the first bird is winged, the second bird flies 150 yards and then runs 200 yards further before it is picked up in a dying condition. It takes some time before both birds are gathered. Later on one has two shots at snipe; the first bird is winged, the second bird flies 150 yards before it touches the ground. We walk on and find each snipe within a few feet of where it fell. And to what are appearances inclined to point? I almost