OOT. 84, 1896.J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
325 
Migrating' Bluebirds. 
Sheldon, Yt, Oct, 10. — During the past week both 
night and day flocks of bluebirds have passed here south- 
ward from their more northern breeding places. Those 
observed during the day a portion of the flock was going 
on at a steady flight, while the others, evidently the young 
birds, were flying along, chasing each other in a frolic- 
- some kind of way, as though they considered this migrar 
ting business a great lark. As these are the first blue- 
birds seen here this season, the spring flight northward 
must have passed here in the night, otherwise we would 
have been sure to have seen or heard some of the birds. 
A day or two before the laat big storm we saw high in the 
air a flock of sea gulls going south. Stanstbad. 
Audubon Copper Plates in tbe Smithsonian. 
Washington, — There are in the Smithsonian six of the 
original copper plates of Audubon's birds: the Virginian 
partridge, whooping crane, "hooping crane," scarlet 
ibis, chuck-will's- widow and the American robin. 
Besides the copper plates there are a number of the 
prints. 
The plates were presented by a Mr. Stuart, of New 
York, and a patron of the American Museum of Natural 
History. B. A. Bean. 
Cats and Coyotes. 
Boston, Oct. 15. — Editor Forest, and Stream: E., 
writing from Shirley Basin, Wyo., in your last number, 
wants to know what to do with the coyotes that kill his 
cats. I would suggest the sending them to large cities 
and towns to be turned loose in back yards at full moons. 
If they are good jumpers they might possibly end a long- 
suffered nuisance and sleep-disturbing cause in thickly 
settled communities. Reignolds. 
^^nji^ B^g ^nd 0iffic 
Our readers are invited to send us for these columns 
notes of the game supply, shooting resorts, and their 
experience in the field. 
SOME AMERICAN GAME BIRDS.* 
IV.— The Snipe. 
AgcoRding to the writings of ornithologists, tbe breed- 
ing grounds of the snipe begin from about 42°, which 
.would be from a parallel drawn through the northern 
part of Nebraska, Iowa, etc., thence north to the Arctic 
Circle. It migrates leisurely southward as the winter sea- 
son approaches, feeding on the available grounds, ulti- 
mately going as far south as the West Indies and north- 
ern South America. It is a bird of the wet lands, and, as 
with the woodcock, the available area entire for a food 
supply is small as compared with the earth's surface; such 
area being the places which are soft enough to be bored 
with its sensitive bill, and also containing food to its lik- 
ing and enough of it to supply its needs. As much soft 
and wet land may also be gravelly, or sandy, or clayey, 
etc., either unfit to sustain the animal and vegetable life 
on which the snipe subsists, or from its refractory nature 
being impervious to the delicate weapon with which 
nature has provided the snipe for the capturing of its food, 
it is apparent that of all the wet land there are only cer- 
tain parts which are available to the bird in securing a 
food supply. Of the places which afford it food, some are 
permanently good throughout the whole. season, as, for 
instance, the sloughs and marshes and parts of river val- 
leys of the prairie country wherein it makes its summer 
habitat; while other places are but temporarily available, 
as land made soft and wet by heavy rains, though such 
places may serve it well for many weeks, as in Louisiana 
and Texas in the fall and winter months, during the rainy 
season, which in those States is largely the equivalent of 
winter. It may seek its food in places which are quite 
wet, as in some of the large marshes — places too wet for the 
shooter to venture into without rubber boots if he value 
dry feet — and again in some other sections it may make 
its haunts on land so firm and dry that the hunter may 
walk on it pleasantly and dry shod in ordinary shoes. 
While the woodcock, its long-billed brother, is a bird 
of the covert, the snipe is a bird of the open; and on both 
birds nature lays a more severe restriction on a late stay 
in the North than she does on any other game bird, for a 
snipe or woodcock attempting to gain a subsistence in a 
frozen country would be a pathetic sight indeed. 
Its food is said to be the larvaj, tender roots of plants 
and worms, which it secures by boring, and such insects 
and other eatable food as it can secure on top of the 
ground. 
To the local sportsman its habits in the shooting sea- 
son — which is mostly the migratory season— seem erratic 
and unknowable, if its unstable characteristics may be 
called habits at all. It is in one place to-day, another to- 
morrow. To-day there may be an abundance, to-morrow 
not one. Or it may go contrary to its erratic reputation 
and remain a number of days about the same grounds. 
Still, the shooter is largely in ignorance of what the 
snipe will do next. The weather and food conditions 
may be the same so far as observation can determine 
them, and yet the birds may come and go in their own 
, whimsical way regardless of conditions. Apparently 
some mysterious impulse seems to seize the birds of a cer- 
tain locality either to come or go, though not in the man- 
f other pappra of this series were; The^Wooiicock, Sept, la: Itiitted 
urpnae. Oct, 10; Quail, Oct. 1?. . v , i.. u«c 
ner of birds which go in flocks wherein all fly aa a part 
of the flock. Snipe fly mostly in ones or twos or threes, 
sometimes more, but always in small numbers, and being 
thus independent in flight it is difficult to understand 
how the common impulse to seek other grounds is at the 
same time felt and acted on by all the birds of a certain 
neighborhood, or at least most of them, there being many 
exceptions as a matter of course, as for instance in a sec- 
tion where there are birds in abundance on a certain day 
they may not all leave at the same tin'e, and indeed some 
scattered birds may be found on certain ground through- 
out the whole season. However much the exception may 
affect the few, the greater part of the birds are erratic 
and lawless most of the time. 
No doubt that which seems whimsical and mysterious 
in the life of the snipe is really in harmony with the 
needs of nature. The bird being largely nocturnal in its 
,rhabits, it is difficult to learn its ways, and it is specially 
difficult for the resident of one locality to observe its 
habits with any degree of precision. Seeing it in but one 
small corner of its habitat, the local sportsman can at 
best gain but a fragmentary knowledge of its needs and 
its habits, though he may infer that the small part which 
he sees is really the whole. 
Being swift of wing and enduring of flight, the snipe 
undoubtedly feeds over vast areas in grounds many miles 
apart, twenty or thirty miles being of no more moment 
to it when in search of food than twenty or thirty rods 
between wheat fields would be to the prairie chicken. 
Moreover, when snipe invade fields in vast numbers, as 
is frequently the case, the ground is soon thoroughly 
bored, and no doubt all the food within reach near 
the surface is consumed, and thus it" may be a necessity 
for the snipe to seek food elsewhere till the grounds have 
had time to rest and to replenish. 
Many writers lay great stress on the difficulties of the 
shooting of snipe, treating of it as a bird of phenomenal 
swiftness and erratic flight, and the shooting of it as re- 
quiring something extraordinary in the matter of skill. 
Such savors of limited experience as to number of birds 
shot, the brief part of a season in which they were shot, 
and the limited opportunity in which to observe their 
habits. As a matter of fact, snipe shooting at certain 
times is the easiest of shooting, as on warm days, when 
the birds are fat and lazy, flying slowly and tamely, with 
pendulous bills, as is often the case in the fall in the 
South when they are in good feeding grounds. They are 
then disinclined to move, and indolently lie to the dog's 
points till the shooter walks them up. 
The books teach that the snipe rises with a zigzag 
flight against the wind, darting to right and left with 
such rapid flashes of speed that the best of shooters are 
puzzled, and often miss. The snipe, it is true, rises 
against the wind when there is a wind, and zigzags a 
few times to get up speed and a straight course. Many 
writers on snipe shooting lay it down as correct that the 
shooter, to take advantage of the snipe's peculiarity in 
rising, should shoot down wind, or advance to the dog's 
point down wind, so that when the snipe is flushed it will 
fly toward him. All such savor of the novice, or of a 
skill which needs nursing; and all the difficulties are 
greatly exaggerated— zigzag, swift flight and all. No 
bird of the open is so difficult to shoot as is the bird of the 
covert. The zigzag of the snipe is in the beginning of its 
flight, and nothing is easier than to wait on it a moment 
till it straightens out on a straight flight before shooting 
at it; and then it is a matter of shooting on the wing, as 
other wing shooting is. 
As to walking down wind to secure a better shot, the 
sportsman need not concern himself about it in the least, 
excepting perhaps on such days as are cold and windy, 
and days when the birds are very wild and rise at the ex- 
treme range of the gun. As with pigeon shooting, the 
really good shot does not let his birds get hard if they rise 
within range. He doesn't care a sou whether they zigzag 
or not, for he snaps them as soon as they are on the wing; 
or being well on the wing, he permits them to get into 
steady flight and then delivers his fire. There is on the 
part of the experienced shot no particular attempt to 
reach the bird from a weak quarter. He takes the shoot- 
ing as it comes. Snipe shooting is open shooting, and 
there is nothing whatever about the bird or its flight 
which makes it a phantom. 
On windy days, or when it is cold weather, it may be 
very wild and rise at extreme ranges, and shooting then 
is quite as niuch a test of the gun as it is a test of the 
shooter's skill; though few writers pay any heed to the 
distinction, and consider it all, far or near, as a matter of 
skill aibne. At best, walking down wind on snipe is an 
uncertain advantage, for be it known that a snipe can fly 
down or across wind with a swiftness and ease which dis- 
poses very quickly of any trifling advantage of • a few 
yards taken up wind for a start. 
The habits of snipe as oftenest described are their habits 
when they are lean and wild, or wild from a change from 
warm to cold, or from still to windy weather. But to 
teach that such is their regular manner of flight would 
be on a par with teaching that quail live in the tree tops 
because they sometimes take refuge therein. 
Even when lean and wild, on a calm day the snipe does 
uot strain the skill of a good shct, but on a windy day the 
wild, lean snipe can dart very swiftly across or down 
wind, and if to this be added rises at lon§ range the shoot- 
ing is then really difficult, though then, as mentioned be- 
fore, it is also a test of the gun. When thus wild, the 
snipe is exceedingly restless and moves about a great 
deal. It then takes alarm quickly, flies with its bill ex- 
tended straight ahead, flying so high as mostly to be out 
of range. It can pitch to the ground from its highest 
flight, darting to the ground with stiffened wings and 
lighting with the greatest ease. 
In the course of migration the birds stop in favor- 
ite places where food is abundant, and sometimes re- 
main till the weather becomes too unpleasant to remain 
longer. As a rule they arrive in the South in a lean coxx- 
dition, and in such condition the snipe is at its best as a 
flyer. 
Shooting experience limited to times when the snipe 
are wild is^n experience with the snipe in its most diffi- 
cult moods. But, as mentioned before, such parts of 
snipe shooting are not all of snipe shooting. When the 
birds are lean they are also wilder, regardless of weather 
conditions. 
Snipe shooting as to quantity varies one locality with 
another more than does any other kind of shooting, for 
one locality may contain but a few birds to reward the 
shooter's efforts, while in other localities they may fairly 
swarm, as in parts of Louisiana and Texas in the fall and 
spring months, when the birds are migrating, where they 
generally remain several weeks enjoying the food abun- 
dance and becoming very fat, and some scattered ones 
may be found all through the winter. The heavy rains 
of fall and spring, frequently a downpour of days, soften 
the fat alluvial prairie lands so that hundreds of square 
miles are fitted for the snipe's habitat. In particularly 
favorable sections of the prairie, cotton, corn and sugar 
fields, they may at times be found in thousands. A dog 
in such shooting is in the way except to act as a retriever. 
There is no woodcraft necessary in such shooting. The 
shooter walks along till the birds fly up, and so rapidly 
will he sometimes flush them that at every step or two it 
is flre and load and fire and load again. At such times 
the gun becomes too hot to hold in the hands, and the 
shooter must perforce stop till it cools sufficiently to 
handle. 
Enormous bags have been made on snipe, particularly 
in Louisiana and Texas, where the greater part of the 
snipe of North America congregate for a few weeks in 
their period of migration. One of the greatest, and I be- 
lieve that it is referred to now as the greatest, was made 
many years ago by Mr. Pringle,' a wealthy sugar planter 
of Louisiana, who had great fame as a sportsman of rare 
skill, and who bagged 400 and some odd snipe in a day. 
This is a large bag indeed, but it is but one of thousands 
of others large in themselves, but so common as to excite 
no special comment in that section. 
I have told of these matters to gentlemen in the North, 
whose success was measured by a dozen birds, more or 
less, as the result of a day's shooting, and such being out- 
side of their personal experience they have been pleased 
to consider it an idle tale, assuming a ludicrous astuteness 
in respect to what should be true the world over from 
their narrow experience in shooting a few birds over a 
few acres of ground each year. 
In regard to the big bag made by Sir. Pringle, it may 
be added by way of explanation that he had negroes to 
assist him, some to carry his spare guns, others again to 
carry the ammunition and retrieve the dead birds. I 
have been told by men who have hunted with him that 
he is a most indefatigable walker and possesses extraor- 
dinary quickness and accuracy in the use of the shotgun, 
snapping the birds almost on the instant that they take 
wing. In that land of abundance at that day it was not 
considered unsportsmanlike to kill all that the sportsman 
was pleased to kiU, for after all were done shooting there 
was no apparent diminution in the abundance of the 
birds. If they killed many, their neighbors derived the 
benefit of it; and the killing was at irregular intervals, 
differing from the steady drain made on the bird supply 
day after day by those who shoot for market. This cir- 
cumstance of the record bag was a happening of many 
years ago, when the sentiment concerning game preserva- 
tion was different everywhere North and South from 
what it is to-day. 
As to snipe shooting and the way of it, the proper 
manner to shoot them is to go forth and shoot them — ^in 
other words, the set manner of doing this thing and that 
thing as taught by some writers is all very well if they 
can do no better. There is no rule whereby snipe shoot- 
ing can be made soft and easy, and there is no sportsman 
with proper ambition who will care to have his skill less 
than the best test that the bird can offer. If it is unequal 
to the test, practice will improve it; and if it will not, 
there is at least the pleasure of trying to cope with the 
bird. The proper skill is that which takes the shooting 
as it comes instead of picking out the easy shots or easy 
combinations to secure them. 
The difficulties of snipe shooting in general have been 
greatly exaggerated. The lightning zigzag up wind at 
the start and the swiftness at all times as set forth in 
print would lead the novice to believe that it was almost 
beyond.the skill of any one without a special "gift" to 
