One of the only two good passages I can ever figure Tolstoy wrote, but I'm not big on Russian literature, so maybe he has some enduring qualities. I give him props for no other fact than he has a snipe hunt. The passage on grouse from Laska's view is classic in a way all dog men (women) will know, but this is snipe.....
From "Anna Karenina":
Levin looked about him to right and to left, and there, just facing him against the dusky blue sky above the confused mass of tender shoots of the aspens, he saw the flying bird. It was flying straight towards him; the guttural cry, like the even tearing of some strong stuff, sounded close to his ear; the long beak and neck of the bird could be seen, and at the very instant when Levin was taking aim, behind the bush where Oblonsky stood, there was a flash of red lightning: the bird dropped like an arrow, and darted upwards again. Again came the red flash and the sound of a blow, and fluttering its wings as though trying to keep up in the air, the bird halted, stopped still an instant, and fell with a heavy splash on the slushy ground.
‘Can I have missed it?’ shouted Stepan Arkadyevitch, who could not see for the smoke.
‘Here it is!’ said Levin, pointing to Laska, who with one ear raised, wagging the end of her shaggy tail, came slowly back as though she would prolong the pleasure, and as it were smiling, brought the dead bird to her master. ‘Well, I’m glad you were successful,’ said Levin, who, at the same time, had a sense of envy that he had not succeeded in shooting the snipe.
‘It was a bad shot from the right barrel,’ responded Stepan Arkadyevitch, loading his gun. ‘Sh … it’s flying!’
The shrill whistles rapidly following one another were heard again. Two snipe, playing and chasing one another, and only whistling, not crying, flew straight at the very heads of the sportsmen. There was the report of four shots, and like swallows the snipe turned swift somersaults in the air and vanished from sight.
