September, 1921 
F O RE ST AND STREAM 
401 
NEW JERSEY SNAPPING TURTLES 
T HOUSANDS of New York and 
Pennsylvania sportsmen know the 
Weymouth deer woods in South 
Jersey — know them as they are in the 
late days of October and the early days 
of November; but few know them as 
they are in summer, when snappers are 
abroad. 
All one needs about this time of year 
to receive an introduction to some aris- 
tocrats of the snapper world is to ex- 
press an appreciative word for snap- 
per meat and he will be conducted 
forthwith to sheds where the turtles re- 
pose in barrels, or to damp cellars, 
where they bury in fancied security in 
the earthen floor. 
After their long winter sleep, when 
they bury in the mud (and curiously 
enough emerge fatter than before) the 
snappers seek for sandy beaches wherein 
to bury their eggs, which are usually 
all deposited by Decoration Day. And 
right here it is worthy of observation 
that the greatest enemy of the snap- 
per, the one which does more than 
all other agencies to curtail his num- 
bers, is the common fox. Br’er Fox 
finds the spot where the eggs are 
buried, digs them up and feasts like 
a king. Raccoons and crows likewise 
take a goodly toll of the snapper fam- 
ily in this manner* 
These depredations are so well known 
to those who hunt snappers (or fish 
for them) that every spring they watch 
carefully for snapper nests, dig up the 
eggs and rebury them where there is 
no danger of foxes finding them. 
Occasionally one runs across an old 
native who “progues” for snappers dur- 
ing the winter months, running hooked 
rods in the mud to fetch them 
forth from their hiding places; 
but the common method of catch- 
ing them is to bait hooks, with the 
barb filed off so they can easily be 
taken out, or “chokes” — small 
pieces of bent wire which catch 
crosswise in the snapper’s throat 
— with salted eel. The salting is 
to keep the bait longer when it is 
set in warm water and cross sec- 
tions of eel with the skin on are 
used. These lures are set along 
small runs in the swamps that 
abound in the deer woods and 
the annual snapper catch is a 
large one, for which a ready mar- 
ket is found, for snapper soup 
and snapper stew are not to be 
winked at, if the necessary dash 
of sherry is. 
The natural diet of the turtles seems 
'The snapping turtle’s egg is spherical, about 
i inch in diameter, and quite palatable, with a 
large yolk and small amount of waiery-matter . — 
[Editors.] 
to be largely a vegetable one, for in 
the vicinity where they are found ma- 
rine growths are found also, such as 
splatter-docks, and are eaten off almost 
as fast as they grow. The largest 
specimens of snappers taken in this 
Five snappers averaging 30 lbs. each 
vicinity average thirty to forty pounds. 
In the accompanying photograph the 
snappers all tip the scales at more 
than thirty pounds each, and they are 
full of fight. But a sharp rap on the 
nose with a stick stuns them, their long 
neck falls out and the head is quickly 
severed and shortly they are “skinned 
out” and ready for the epicure. Down 
this way they are never scalded, which 
is said to detract from the flavor, the 
entire cleaning process being done with 
the knife. 
I. T. B. Smith, 
New Jersey. 
HAWK AND WOODCOCK 
I READ the interesting editorial about 
the woodcock in the July issue of 
Forest and Stream and as you invite 
readers’ experiences I will give you 
mine, which I had in November, 1912, 
in County Cork, Ireland. I managed 
to get over there that year for a two 
months’ holiday to my father’s home. 
Being born and raised there I cer- 
tainly knew where to find woodcock, so 
I was out practically every day with 
my gun and Irish setter. Now, as you 
know, the woodcock over there are much 
larger, but otherwise the same; but we 
find them in the open heather-clad 
mountains, in the verges of little springs 
and little wet channels amongst the 
heather, as well as in the woods. 
I was shooting one morning about 
ten o’clock in a particularly good sec- 
tion. I had already bagged two fine 
birds when I noticed about three hun- 
dred yards off what looked to be a 
very large hawk flying about six feet 
over the tops of the heather, practically 
beating the top with its powerful wings 
systematically, up and down and back 
and forth. I took cover and watched 
for twenty minutes or more. I was 
surprised at the system and the knowl- 
edge as to the best places where to 
flush woodcock that it showed. I was 
eagerly watching a chance to get a 
shot at it but it saw me and flew off 
into the gray fog, which was so thick 
that morning that I could not see more 
than a quarter of a mile away. I was 
going in the same direction, and I had 
traveled about a mile and a half fur- 
ther on, which took me about two hours, 
as the shooting was good and I stop- 
ped often. Suddenly the same hawk 
flew up about a hundred yards in 
front of me and flew again into 
the fog, once more out of sight. 
I figured at once that I had dis- 
turbed it from its dinner, so I 
went right up to the spot where 
it flushed from and as I ap- 
proached my dog came to a dead 
point, which always meant a 
woodcock. Trying in the usual 
way, I was surprised not to find 
one, as this dog was a wonder. I 
believe the dog was puzzled, too, 
and started to search very care- 
fully. Suddenly he came to a 
dead point again, and put his 
nose down on a dead woodcock, 
quite warm, with one breast al- 
most eaten, in the exact spot 
where this large hawk had 
flushed from. So that was proof to me 
that the hawk not only ate the flesh of 
woodcock, but by its actions hunted for 
them especially. 
I mentioned the matter to a local 
( CONTINUED ON PAGE 424) 
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The European Woodcock 
