File:American game-bird shooting (1910) (14775333923).jpg

Identifier: americangamebird00grin (find matches)
Title: American game-bird shooting
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Grinnell, George Bird, 1849-1938
Subjects: Game and game-birds Hunting
Publisher: New York, Forest and stream publishing company
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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, twenty or thirty miles of flight beingof no more effort to it when in search of food thantwenty or thirty rods are to the prairie chicken. Whensnipe invade feeding grounds in vast numbers, as isfrequently the case, the grounds are soon thoroughlybored, and all the food within reach is consumed;thus it may be a necessity for them to seek food else-where till the exhausted grounds have time to replen-ish themselves. Many writers lay great stress on the difficulties ofsnipe shooting. They treat it as a bird of phenomenalswiftness and erratic flight, and the shooting of it asrequiring something extraordinary in the matter ofskill. As a matter of fact, snipe shooting, at certaintimes, is the easiest of shooting. On warm days, whenthe birds are fat and lazy, flying slowly and tamely,with pendulous bills, as is often the case in the fall, inthe South, no bird a-wing is more easily killed. Theyare then disinclined to fly. They indolently lie to thedogs points till the shooter walks them up.
Text Appearing After Image:
SNIPE SHOOTING 325 The books teach that the snipe rises with a zigzagflight against the wind, darting to right and left withsuch rapid flashes of speed that the best of skilfulsportsmen are puzzled, and consequently make manya miss. The snipe, it is true, goes against the wind whenthere is a wind, and zigzags a few times to rise up-ward before taking a straight course. Many writerson snipe shooting lay it down as correct that theshooter, to take advantage of this peculiarity in ris-ing, should walk down wind, or advance to the dogspoint down wind, so that when the snipe is flushedit will fly toward him. All such teachings savor ofthe novice, or of a skill which needs nursing. Allthe difficulties are greatly exaggerated, zigzag, swiftflight and all. The zigzag of the snipe a-wing is inthe beginning of its flight, and nothing is easier thanto wait a moment till it straightens out on a straightflight. Then the killing is a matter of shooting onthe wing, similar to other wing shooting. As

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