February, 1918 
FOREST AND STREAM 
85 
blind took wing, and in a moment all were 
in the air. I frantically tried to finish my 
loading. Twice they circled around me, 
whistling all the while, and then just as I 
got the wads on my shot charges, they 
swung up in the wind to leave. Hastily 
thrusting a cap on one nipple, I raised the 
gun and fired, but they were too far away 
and one lone bird was all that fell, and 
thus I lost the best chance I have ever had 
in my life for a big shot at willett. 
I felt pretty blue over my “fiasco” with 
the willett, but the wind was freshening 
from the southwest, and it soon became 
evident that a flight was on. Flock after 
flock would appear in the north and swiftly 
wing their way down the beach. Most of 
the large birds kept well out over the bay, 
seeming to know the danger of the bars, 
but occasionally some would come to the 
decoys. As I sat enjoying this great mov¬ 
ing picture of bird life, a single large bird 
came from the direction of the house and 
with a mellow whistle, coming in over 
the decoys, pitched down among them. I 
determined to give him a chance for his 
life, so rising, waited for him to take 
wing, killing him quickly as he did so. 
When I walked out to pick him up I found 
a snipe unknown to me, a large brown bird 
with a straight bill, looking somewhat like 
a gigantic woodcock. Uncle William could 
not tell me the name of it. 
Some time after this, I saw a flock of 
birds coming down the beach. ^At first 
I thought they were ducks, but as they 
drew nearer I saw they were snipe. Seven 
of them, at my call, set their wings and 
decoyed beautifully; as 1 rose to shoot 
they lined up well. Three fell to the first 
barrel and one to the second. The remain¬ 
ing three birds made a long circle, and then 
with me whistling all the time, came over 
me again from behind. I had been hur¬ 
riedly reloading, and as they came over had 
one barrel ready. When I rose to shoot I 
noticed there were but two birds, one of 
which I killed, the survivor with many 
shrill whistles taking a hurried departure. 
I now gathered the birds and found a great 
surprise. Of the five gathered,'two were 
the ordinary “Jack Curlew” and three had 
their bills turned up instead of down, 
otherwise they looked just the same. As 
I sat looking at them, it occurred to me 
that seven birds had come to me and only 
one had gone away. Where was the other 
one? I stood up and looked over the bar 
but no bird was in sight, and then glancing 
down, there within three feet of the back 
of the blind, with outstretched wings, lay 
the missing one. It had evidently received 
its death wound in' the first round, and 
following its mates had died in the air be¬ 
hind me. This last bird was another sur¬ 
prise. It was entirely different from the 
other five. It looked like a cross between 
a willett and curlew, but had a bar, or 
Responding to the call to breakfast 
band of white feathers around its tail. 
Uncle William pronounced this to be a 
“Ring tailed Marlin,” and those with the 
up-turned bills “Marlin.” 
When I went in to lunch I had a mag¬ 
nificent string of snipe and was much 
elated with my success. The afternoon, 
however, did not bring such good results, 
but I had a glorious day’s sport. The ex¬ 
act number killed I cannot now recall, but 
it must have been nearly one hundred 
head, made up of members of nearly every 
variety of large snipe known on the At¬ 
lantic Coast. Uncle enjoyed my success. 
T HE next morning saw me again in the 
blind; and still the flight was on, with 
the snipe still winging their way 
towards the distant tropics. Again I had 
splendid shooting. This morning Demo- 
rest decided he would not hoist the signal 
for breakfast, but would rather come and 
tell me, and incidentally help gather the 
birds if I should shoot any. Soon after he 
had joined me a flock of willett came to 
the decoys and several were killed. My 
hands were wet when I began loading my 
gun after the dead birds were brought in, 
and as I sat on the bench in the blind 
with the gun across my knees to put on 
the caps, I saw that Demorest was direct¬ 
ly in line with the muzzle. Quite sharply 
I said, “Demorest, you should .never stand 
in front of a gun like that; supposing the 
hammer should slip from my thumb, where 
would you be?” He stepped back and at 
that moment the hammer did slip from 
my wet thumb, and “bang” went the gun, 
blowing a hole through the blind exactly 
'where the boy had stood but an instant be¬ 
fore. The “Angel of Death” had stooped 
so near that I could hear the rustle of his 
sable wings. The horror and shock of the 
averted tragedy nauseated me and I was 
very sick for several minutes. After I 
had recovered a little, I laid my gun on 
the beach, and walked over to the sea 
where I sat for a long time to regain my 
composure. I had no desire for breakfast. 
I was very shaky for the remainder of the 
day, and did but little shooting, and that 
very poorly. While walking back from the 
beach, I noticed several peculiar markings 
in the sand, as if a rope had been dragged 
across from sand hill to sand hill. Getting 
my gun, I followed one of these trails to 
where it ended under a wisp of dead grass. 
I turned this over with the gun muzzle 
and exposed to view a coiled snake, which 
hissed at me viciously, spreading its broad 
head in a very angry manner. It was an 
Adder, and a charge of shot finished its 
career. I had discovered a new amuse¬ 
ment, and as snakes were very numerous 
on the beach in those days, I trailed and 
killed many a one in later years to pass 
the time when the snipe were not flying. 
On the morning of the third day, Uncle 
William announced his intention of trying 
the shooting and occupied the upper bar 
but a short distance from the house, while 
I returned to my old stand. The flight 
was waning but we still had good sport. 
One shot of the morning stands out in bold 
relief in my memory. Thirteen willett 
came to my decoys; of these I knocked 
down five with my first two shots. Some 
of these were wing broken and ran over 
the bar whistling loudly; these attracted 
the attention of the remainder of the flock, 
and they sailed around me time after time, 
until I had reloaded, when I killed three 
more. The remaining five birds then flew 
up the shore to Uncle William, and de¬ 
coying nicely, be killed three with his two 
shots. The last two snipe then turned to 
come back to me, one hard hit, some dis¬ 
tance behind the other. By using the ut¬ 
most haste I had my gun loaded and one 
cap on -\yhen the leading bird passed over 
my decoys. With a quick “snap” shot I 
brought this one down, and grasping an¬ 
other cap, placed it on the nipple, just as 
the last one was passing out of range. 
Covering this bird with great care, I had 
the satisfaction of seeing it collapse at the 
report, stone dead, at about sixty yards, 
thus making a clean score between us of 
the flock of thirteen fine willett. 
(continued on page 121) 
The flat, low-lying marshes afforded excellent cover and feeding-ground for countless thousands of snipe and migratory birds 
