Terms, Five Dollars a Year. 
Ten Cents a Copy. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1876 
Volume 6, Number 24. 
IT Chatham SI.(OllyHallfeqr.) 
For Forest and Stream. 
ghovtittg in 
A DAY WITH THE SNIPE AT NAN-GA-MUNGI. 
“Anna virtmqae cano.” —Tirgil 
AKE up, you old porpoise, sleeping at this hour 
of the morning! Why, it was only last night 
you were willing to lay odds that you would be the first 
man up. O'Gaggen has just arrived, and I can see old 
John stalking down the hund with Snagsby and Fannie at 
his heels, and your boy has got your tea and toast ready, 
BO— 
“Rise up William Riley,” 
buckle on your armor. 
“And come along with me. ” 
I was lying quietly iu bed enjoying tlie cool atmosphere 
of a lovely morning in October—a morning that can only 
be appreciated by those who pass through the heat of a 
southwest monsoon in Japan—thinking whether X had 
everything arranged for the day’s shooting, when my 
thoughts were abruptly broken by the advent of Gus, who; 
be it known, besides beiDg one of the best shots in the East, 
is decidedly the best fellow. 
It required but little urging to step off pyjanmas, take a 
jump into the bath-tub, and doff a light shooting suit. 
This finished, I strolled into the dining room where Gub 
and O'Gaggen had commenced work upon the regular 
Eastern morning repast of tea, toast and eggs. 
John was standing on the sides of his feet by the bay 
window dramming a tune on the panes, his hat pulled 
down partly shading his eyes, and a cheroot in his mouth. 
“Good morning, John. Don’t you eat anything before 
shooting? Better have an egg, or something of the sort.” 
“Eat-! no. The last time we left here to shoot 
pheasants at Ma-ri-ko I ate one boiled egg, and the infernal 
thing sat like a loaded cat-ridge in my stomach all day, and 
besides mighty near killing me it caused me to miss every 
pheasant that came within shot. Eat! Thunder, its a 
wonder to me that you three gormandizers, after stuffing 
yourselves with a heavy dinner only at eight o'clock last 
night, can find room to slow away such trash as tea, toast 
and eggs; here, hoy, give me some teppo midzer (soda water) 
and that bottle that has three stars on the cork. That's the 
kind of eating I commence the day with. It don’t load 
you down like a charge of buckshot in your “innards” 
like those-eggs. ” 
“You are foolish, John, not to eat something. We get 
nothing more until noon, you know, and walking through 
rice fields with a blazing sun overhead is no joke,” said 
Gus. 
“I have lived many years in China and Japan, and no 
one can tell me that eggs and tea is proper food for a 
human being to start out in the morning with. Anyway, 
it won’t suit me, and that heathen (pointing to the servant) 
carries my grub, and its in the chronometer case.” Well, 
every one can suit himself, but my advice is, never to 
start out on an empty stomach to travel over nee fields 
that continually emit miasmatic vapors, aud to prove this I 
am stowing away the fourth poached egg,” exclaimed 
O’Gaggen. 
“Yes, in your country,” replied John, “they are glad to 
eat a badly boiled potato and call it a tip-top dinner, but 
where I was raised, in America, a few miles from Portland, 
they dig up the sun with a spade and bake their pork and 
beans with it, finishing off with Cape Cod woodcock.” 
“What do yon call that?” asked the President. 
“Well, its salt fish, two boiled potatoes, a beet, and a 
quart of boiling fat. When I was shipwrecked off Cape 
Cod, thirty years ago, it was the first and last dish they fed 
ns on during a week’s stay, and the fellow who could 
drink the most grease was considered the healthiest man." 
“Indeed!” said the Irishman. “What a queer country 
you have lived in.” 
“Yes, hut that is not the greatest part, either, they use 
this grease for various purposes. It never costs them a 
uent for oiled clothes. When they go a-fiahing they only 
put on an old pair of trowsers, and oil the rest of their 
bodies, which makes them waterproof, and as for hair oil, 
why, bless you, a Yankee peddler could not sell a bottle in 
a year; they use nothing but pure pork fat on their hair, 
which turns it in time to first-rate bristles, so when a man 
gets short of cash he has only to have his hair cut and 
carry it to the first shoemaker in thu village to get ready 
money. They call this the basis of political economy, and 
it was where John Mill, one of your countrymen, first got 
his ideas of political economy from,” replied John. 
“My gracious! what a country to live in,” responded the 
Irishman, as the fourth egg disappeared. 
“Well, President, what is the programme for to-day V 
The Bun is just rising, and we had better be up and doing,” 
interrogated John. 
“You, Gus, O’Gaggen, and myself will go over in my 
shooting boat with the dogs, while the servants can be 
driven up in my wagonette with the luncheon to ‘Black 
Eyed Susan’s’ on the Tocaido, where they can hire coolies 
and meet us at the fourth dyke at noon with the tiffin. In 
the evening we will change places and drive home, while 
they can go with the dogs and the boat.” 
“AH right; here hoy—in Japanese—put this change of 
clothing in the boat with Snagsby and Fannie. Shove my 
gun and cat-ridges in with them, and don’t forget my 
“chronometer case” or you wiU spend the night in the Tobi 
prison." 
Sally, Diver and Becky having been safely stowed on 
board the boat with the other dogs wo all jumped aboard, 
while the boatman shoved off, and hoisting our heavy 
Japanese sail we were soon spinning through the shipping 
with the light morning air, with how pointed for Man- 
ga-mungi, six miles ahead. 
It was a lovely morning, delightfully cool, and we all 
tacitly enjoyed the sail while smoking our cheroots. 
“O'Gaggen,” said John, “it has always beeu my misfor¬ 
tune while shooting with you to have that Sally of youts 
step ahead of me and flush every snipe in the field. Now 
what use is a dog to any one who has to call him into heel 
every five minutes. It only spoils the fun, and I would 
advise you to shoot the bitch at once.” 
“That bitch will be the finest pheasant dogiu Yokohama 
next year, and as she is out of your Fannie by Gus’ Diver 
I consider her pretty good stock.’’ 
"I intended to drown one pup of that litter, but I said 
to myself, ‘there’s O’Gaggen, who don’t know the differ¬ 
ence between a poor pup and a Japanese Custom House 
officer, so I will give her to him. Thai’s the way you got 
Sally. Now take my advice and heave her overboard at 
once.” 
i t “Come look alive, all of you,” cried Gus, as the boat’s 
keel grated on the sandy beach at Man-ga-mungi. 
“Why, there’s the President’s wagonette just arrived at 
the Tea House abreast of us. I can see the bettoes unhar¬ 
nessing the horses. The servants will be in time to meet 
us at the fourth dyke. Now, then, spread out in the rice 
field. Keep your dogs well into heel and walk slowly, the 
slower the better. There is never anything gained by 
walking snipe iu a hurry, as in so doing, in three cases out 
of five, you are apt to pass the birds that may be lying close 
in the rice. Are you ready?” 
“Hold on," replied John. “Where's my‘chronometer 
case?’ Here boy, said. Where in thunder did that rascal 
go to? Here O’Gaggen, you always carry a private stock 
of Dunville & Go., let me wet my lips before shooting. 
That cheroot was pretty strong; came near getting, the best 
of me. Now I am ready,” rejoined John, invigorated by a 
pull at O'Gaggen’s medicine bottle. “Keep your eyes 
peeled, Thunder! the birds are rising wild. Well done, 
Gus. Keep in line President; no hurry.” 
The snipe did rise wild as John had said, but one by one 
they dropped, the dogs retrieving them. 
GraduaUy we became separated while pushing up the 
patch, Gus and O’Gaggen taking the field parallel, leaving 
John and the President to work the first stretch. 
Suddenly we heard a loud noise, and John brokeinwith: 
! “I’ll bet my hat that Gus has shot ‘Chop Dollar’ again, 
He will fire at a snipe even if his best friend is in point 
blank range,” and his words were verified, for on arriving 
at the spot Gus was settling matters to the satisfaction of 
the wounded coolie by giving him a few tempos for having 
shot him by mistake; his bird getting up behind and in 
range of master “Chop Dollar," who, from Gus’ continual 
target practice at his face, had earned the soubriquet. 
After working up the third dyke, and in passing a small 
bend, O'Gaggen was seen signalling the party, and on ap¬ 
proaching him we were astonished to hear that he had 
marked down a couple of woodcock in a small clump of 
bamboos and hazel which surrounded a few old graves. 
The brushwood being almost impenetrable the spaniels 
were sent, in to do duty, while we stationed ourselves in 
likely positions. Iu a short time the barking of one of the 
spaniels announced that the birds were flushed, and almost 
simultaneously the report of O’Gaggen’s gun was heard, fol¬ 
lowed by John's loud, convulsive laugh interspersed with 
“a crow, by thunder!” called us immediately to the scene 
of amusement, and true enough the Irishman had bagged 
a crow which was flushed by the dogs, and shot before it 
was ten feet away from the cover by the quick-sighted 
O’Gaggen, who expected to see a couple of woodcock. 
Notwithstanding this unfortunate mistake O'Gaggen was 
convinced that the cover held the woodcock and proposed 
to try and flush the birds himself, Hardly had Joha’s. 
laughter subsided, and which was only quieted by vigor¬ 
ous pulls at his “chronometer case,” before the birds rose 
sharp on the wing from the very edge of the bamboos and 
flow almost straight at the thirsty man, Who was now too 
much occupied to be able to grasp his gun, and were both 
brought to bag, one falling to Gus, and the other to O'Gag¬ 
gen. The laugli now turned upon John, who, with ill- 
concealed mortification, swore that it tvas no fault of his 
that birds will fly at the wrong moment, 
The end of the fourth dyke was just visible, and with it 
our servants who had preceded us. Luncheon had been 
spread upon the ground under the shade of a massive tree, 
and seating ourselves Ave Avere soon busily discussing the 
merits of a cold game tiffin and Hock and seltzer. While 
doing justice to the repast it struck O’Gaggen to inquire of 
John how many buds he had brought to bag, and was 
rather surprised to hear Unit our worthy friend had not a 
feather to show for his morning’s work. “But," said he, 
“it is not the fault of my shooting, but that infernalDutch 
powder Ayhich. I bought of old H., and then again it hap¬ 
pens sometimes that, 
'So swift a bird Is apt to make 
Olit shots with indecision sliake, 
Suck ars indebted when they kill 
Much more to fortune than to skill.' 
"Those are splendid birds,” remarked the President, 
weighing one of the largest. “This last one I knocked 
over weighs just six and one-half outiees. I have seldom 
seen solitary snipe, even iu this country, as large as this 
fellow.” 
“When I was in Hakodadi, last year,” replied Gus, 
“Shooting on the long marshes, Avhich extend from the fort 
seaward, I bagged twenty couples of snipe, not these Eng¬ 
lish snipe, but real solitary snipe—the Saolopaz major of 
Linnasus—in just one hour, and every bird was as heavy as 
that one you have just weighed. They were not, however, 
what I call ‘bang-up’ shooting, as they rose heavily when 
flushed from actual fatness, and made it easy work for me 
to knock them oyer, whereas tlio snipe we have beeu shoot¬ 
ing this morning are with few exceptions English snipe, 
and are a much lighter and wilder bird, which makes 
shooting, in my opinion, more exciting; but then so far as 
flavor goes of course there is no comparison, as the solitary 
snipe has more of that delicate la3te that we so much ad ¬ 
mire iu the woodcock than any bird I know of; in fact,, 
the Japanese themselves cousidev the snipe as belonging to 
the woodcock family, and the name yama-shiyi meana 
nothing more than hill snipe, Avhich I think a very appro¬ 
priate appellation when you take into consideration the 
similar habits of these birds:” 
Luncheon dispatched we enjoyed a quiet pipe, and then 
counted our morning’s work, which amounted to fifty-two. 
