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 



