Omaha daily bee., 1888-04-29
The SNIPE AND WOODCOCK.
An Epicurean Contrast Between the
Two Birds.
A DAYS SHOOT AT SALTWATER.
Where and When TO Hun the Gamy
Jack-A Dissertation on Shooting
and Eating Them-Local Sports
Find Pleasure i'm the Marshes


The English snipe, Gallinago Wilsonii, or
"the jacks" as they are more commonly and
familiarly called, in my esteem are the choic-
est game birds in the whole known world,
not even excepting that moroccan of the cpl
cure, the woodcock. / think the latter, so
far as its incompatible edible qualities are
concerned, is in a measure, a delusion and a
myth, and that it is given such universal pre-
ference simply on account of the endorse
ment of alleged gastronomes and the extreme
rarity of the bird. Not one cook in a thou
sand knows anything about serving wood
cock, and the bird is apt to come upon the
table in as unpalatable a shape as it is posi-
BILE to imagine for anything so delicate and
delicious. However, it makes no difference
how superbly the woodcock may be served,
he is not to be compared with the jack snlpe.
Can a dainter, more tempting or irresistible
dish be coniured up than these tender, juicy
little habitants of marsh and meadow affo I'd,
especially at this season of the yeart Take
a bakers dozen, have them neatly dressed,
split open on the back, and with a lump of
spring butter, and cplenty of pepper and salt
for each bird, lay them in a dripping pan
about two-thirds full of water, then place
them in the hot oven, and while in process of
baking, repeatedly haste, and when they are
thoroughly lone through, and nice and
brown, Ill venture to say yon will find them
the most lucious dish you ever sat down to.
This is a capital snipe country, there being
some good shooting within three miles of the
city's center. One of the best grounds l
know of in this vicinity, however, is at
Weedy lake, a few miles south of Council
Bluffs. 1t is a long stretch of low-lying,
Doggy meadow and woodland, and will afford
better shooting than any of the famous
grounds along the Illinois or kankakee. The
soil is of the richest, brackest loan, CORFU
gated and broken with tufted niggerheads
ana trucking rills, with either brackish pools
or reaches of dead buffalo grass. lying be-
tween, and making the finest feeding grounds
hungry gallinago ever struck. The tender
green of the dandelion and splatterdock are
now just peeping forth, while here and there
are clumpS of swamp willow, maple, Illpu-
tian cane, pucker brush, Sere flags and way
ing reeds which make it a great rendezvous
for song birds of all kinds as well as for
frogs, turtles and garter snakes.
The jacks arrive here in their greatest
flight during the first warm and genial days
of April. However, they have been known
to put in an appearance IN open winters as
early as the 1st of March, but in small num-
bers, and restless in their department and
lying to neither dog nor man.
The shooting is now at its height, and one
of the warm, balmy days of last week Johnny
Hardin and | went down to and
did some very creditable work, too, for a
starter, without the services OF a retriever.
Notwithstanding this statement i do not deem
a dog Of much advantage, save for recover
ing dead birds, for a dead snipe-and all old
gunuers will bear me QUITS about as hard a
thing to find as the proverbial needle in a
haystack. Without a dog much care must be
exercised in marking them down, and they
should be gathered at the earliest possible
moment, as the homogeneousness of a well
ordered snipe grounds is a wonder and n per-
plexity always.
It was a lovely afternoon, the enc in ques-
ton, and our hearts swelled with the an
ticipated sport as we set in at the
southern boundaries of the marsh, and
started in among the tussocks toward the
grove at its northern extremity, forcing our
way through the tangle of ambitious sprouts,
herbs and plants, ferns and MOSES, over
blackened logs, through thickets of yellow
tendrilled willows, red-dyed maple sprigs
aud creeping vines. The landscape, too, was
full of life and exhilaratiOn.
A wandering breeze swayed the naked
reeds the robin sang his blithesome roundelay
from the topmost twi OF yon tall cottonwood
the blackbird chirped ,petulantly from TINS
copse and that; a couple of jays scolded us
from a near clump OF naples; the crow
cawed in the distant grove, the hawk win
moved his sable shape far above and the
garter snake, with provident speed, made his
way into the crypts of dead flags from under
our rubber boots-the whole scene bewil-
| dering the eye and yivifying the fancy.
We DID not know whether the Jacks had
arrived here, or not, only felt sure that they
had from the generally favorable meteor
illogical condition existing-the gentle rains
of the few days previous, the frost-freed
ground, the starting grasses. the warm,
mellow sunshine and soft, south breezeS.
Nobody knows when the snipe come.
Nobody ever saw him come, or leave either,
for that matter. They are as mysterious and
silent in their arrival and departure as dis
embodied spirits. They undoubtedly migrate
by night, riding in on the first warm wave from
the south after the earliest spring rains have
accomplished their mission with the frost In
the earth. You may visit the snipe grounds
to-day and beat them up and down and
across and back again until your legs wear
out, and never jump a single jack or hear a
single 'skeap,n the inevitable plant OF a
startled snlpe. But tomorrow you may go
again and find the meadow full OF
them. III the temperature Is not
just-right they will be discovered
only in isolathd punches of four or five. They
are uneasy in their habits and will flush away
the alarum for every jack in the field TO rise.
Under such conditions they are up like a
brown and white streak; their notes are
sharp, Disguised and spiteful, and on they
go, flying low at first, but gradually ascend
ing until they are but a mosquito against the
background sky. Here / have known them
to fly for hours in the most irregular peregrl-
nations, making great curviforms IN their
aerial diyersions-now shooting on out OF the
range of vision, but unexpectedly making
their appearance again and Immediately
overhead, as if dropped from the upper
spaces, so erratic and bewildering are their
At irregular intervals during
this fight that distinct, but far-soundlng
cultural whir, that quayering, tremulousl
weird hoo 100000 breaks upon the ear ana