34. AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
killed many, and finally the snipe became wild and 
flew away, not as if going to great distances, but as 
if deserting this especial place. In the effort to learn 
where the birds had gone I passed over a little rise of 
ground on to a small, cultivated plateau of the prairie 
running out between two arms of the marsh, and to my 
great astonishment started a large number of snipe 
from the dusty ground between the rows of potatoes. 
A little later, entering a piece of timber, where the 
ground was dry under foot, several snipe sprang up 
in front of me and flew away. It was apparent that 
these birds, being much harried on the marsh, had 
taken refuge in this place, waiting until the cause of 
the disturbance should disappear. I have never seen 
snipe so abundant anywhere as they were in this place. 
The following morning, returning to the marsh, very 
few were found, and those few extremely wild. 
The food of the snipe consists chiefly of earth-worms 
and various insects which are found in the soft mire 
of the marshes which they frequent.. Similar in its 
food to the woodcock, its flesh is quite as toothsome, 
and, indeed, it would be difficult by the taste alone to 
tell which bird one was eating. 
The snipe is commonly called jack snipe, or English 
snipe, both misnomers, which should not be used by 
sportsmen. It should properly be called snipe, common 
snipe, or American snipe. In the South, according to 
Audubon, the Creoles call it cache-cache, no doubt 
from its cry, while Mr. Nuttall gives “alewife bird,” 
“from its arrival with the shoals of that fish.” Years 
