THE WILSON'S SNIPE. 



{Gallinago delicata.*) 



Each day are heard, and almost every hour, 

 New notes to swell the music of the groves, 

 And soon the latest of the feathered train 

 At evening twilight come ; — the lonely Snipe, 

 O'er marshy fields, high in the dusky air, 

 Invisible, but, with faint, tremulous tones, 

 Hovering or playing o'er the listener's head. 



— Carlos Wilcox, "Spring in New England. 



Probably few birds are more attractive 

 to the true sportsmen than is Wilson's 

 Snipe. This is due not only to the "ex- 

 cellence of its flesh, but chiefly from the 

 fact that it furnishes a mark which taxes 

 their skill to the utmost, and which no 

 mere novice need hope to hit, unless by 

 accident ; for the bird's flight is swift 

 and tortuous, and it springs from the 

 grass as if thrown by a catapult." 



This popular bird has quite an exten- 

 sive range, covering North America in 

 general. It is known by a number of 

 common names : Common Snipe, Amer- 

 ican Snipe, Jack Snipe and English 

 Snipe. It is also named, in some locali- 

 ties, the Shad Bird, for it appears in 

 early spring at about the time of the 

 blossoming of the shad bush, and at the 

 time when the shad begin to swim up our 

 rivers to deposit their spawn. 



The natural history student who is en- 

 thusiastic enough to sally forth on a 

 wild March day, searching for the first 

 signs of bird migration, is apt to betake 

 himself to one of two places, viz. : the 

 hedge rows and woodland copse, where 

 the robin, blue bird, meadow-lark and 

 flicker lurk, or to the icy margin of some 

 half thawed lake or stream. At the lat- 

 ter places he is apt to observe an early 

 flock of clucks drifting about in the cold 

 water. There, too, perhaps an over-zeal- 

 ous kingfisher is darting about overhead 

 and a killdeer plover runs along the 

 shore, repeating his name in weird notes. 

 And along the water's edge, at intervals, 



the keen-eyed observer discovers the 

 tracks of a long-toed bird who has been 

 feeding in the soft, sun-exposed portions 

 of the damp earth. Numerous perfora- 

 tions in the soil signify that the game old 

 woodcock or its equally vivacious rela- 

 tive, the Wilson's Snipe, has been boring 

 with his lengthy beak for food. Both 

 birds are due from their winter abodes 

 at this season, but the Snipe is so fickle 

 in its habits that it successfully evades 

 many a gunner who is obliged to seek 

 him here about the water to-day, but 

 must look in the corn stubbles, or mead- 

 ows, for his game to-morrow. 



A startled Snipe springs from the 

 ground, with a "ye-ip," "ye-ip," "ye-ip," 

 adopting a course of flight, which is ex- 

 tremely irregular for the first few sec- 

 onds. Unless the birds have been fre- 

 quently flushed and shot at, they often 

 fly but a short distance before alighting, 

 when they run swiftly over the ground 

 for several yards before settling down 

 to feed again. 



Occasionally the Wilson's Snipe breeds 

 as far south as northern Illinois or In- 

 diana. Mr. G. Frean Morcom, formerly 

 of Chicago, has a set of eggs of this 

 bird taken on the Macsauber Gun Club 

 grounds of northern Indiana. Another 

 nest was found several years ago in Mc- 

 Henry county, Illinois, by a farmer who 

 was plowing about a damp hole in a 

 meadow. In each of the above instances 

 the incubating bird sat very close, and 

 exhibited but little fear. This shore bird 



