THE WILSON SNIPE. 647 
range, and then flies straight to some other feeding ground, or circles about 
and enters the old one from another quarter. This zigzag flight, which is 
the joy of the old gunners and the despair of the young, is really a wonderful 
exhibition of the self-protecting instinct. For we cannot fairly accuse the 
Snipe of not knowing his own mind, since when once out of harm’s way, his 
flight is direct and rapid, and he drops into a bog like a shot. The trick must 
have been deliberately acquired. The cries of the first bird startled are some- 
times a signal for all the others in a given swamp to rise and dodge about in 
the upper air, taking distant counsel whether to return or fly to pastures new. 
In either case the sport is off for 
that day, for the aerial caucus is a 
sign that the birds won't stand 
much fooling. 
Of course the degree of timidi- 
ty which the birds exhibit in any 
locality is simply a matter of the 
amount of persecution to which 
they have been recently subjected. 
Sometimes the entrance of a gun- 
ner into a field is the signal for 
the Snipe to flee the country. On 
the other hand, I once approached 
in midwinter a bird which I knew 
to be in perfect condition, and 
which stood quizzically in full WILSON SNIPE “FREEZING.” 
survey until I got within five feet 
of it, whereupon it calmly swam across a little brook rather than bother to 
fly from the harmless bird-man. 
All the members of the Snipe family proper, the Scolopacide, rank high 
as table birds, but the Wilson Snipe, with the Woodcock, are the most highly 
prized. Water animalculee and many kinds of insects appear upon Jack’s 
bill-of-fare, but subterranean worms are the mainstay. ‘These are obtained 
in large measure by the direct probing of the bird, who is provided with a 
long beak, having a sensitive and partly flexible tip, controlled by a special 
set of muscles. In addition to this, however, it appears to make use of an 
ingenious device. While walking thru a marsh patches of mud are often 
found sprinkled with small round holes set close together. ‘These are the 
work of snipe, and are called “borings,’’ being made by the bird, thrusting 
its long bill into the mud as far as the forehead. As it walks over and 
around the holes, insects and worms crawl out of them and are captured. 
Much the same thing may be done in a garden by boring a quantity of holes 
with a small stick, and then rapping the ground with it smartly. 
