Los Angeles herald., 1892-10-30
THE FALL SN|PE SHOOTING,
A Treatise on the Longbilled
Tribes of Marsh Birds.
Their Breeding Grounds Along the
Slopes of Our Great Snow Peaks.
The Curlew and Godwit Tribes, and
Their Habits-A Brochette of Beach
Birds for the Camping-out
Breakfast.
skepl skepl And home fromth forth they

skep! skep!! And home from the north they
fly,
Their tiny forms in zig. gag aight they bear,
As in relief against the glowing sunset sky
They cleave the crisp and frosty autumn air.
Snipe shooting comes here month
later than the uailshooting, and, while
you get your boots and clothing covered
with no end of murky ooze, yet it is
nevertheless great sport for the lover OF
sports afield. Your dandy wingshots
may stand up to the trap all day and
wingbreak lot of poor, half-starved
pigeons; but let one OF these fellows
get into bog with one leg up to the
knee and the other to his buttocks,
and then let a snipe get up
with his everlasting cry of skep-
.skep. and his twisting fight,
with no two yards to the same point oi
the compass. I don't think your dude
sportsman is quite as good shot under
those surroundings at least, think he
will be apt to give his preferences to the
trap. Like the wildfowl, the snipe
breeds mostly in Labrador and Alaska,
but in California and Oregon we have 80
many vast snow mountains, such as
Whitney, Shasta, Hood and Adams,
that the snipe find breeding grounds n
fresh water morasses along these slopes !;
and while the winter shooting grounds
in these valleys are all parched up with
the summer heat.
THE SNIPE AS A GAME BIRD.
The fact that the hunter can pass
within three feet of snipe, at times,
without disturbing him; and that it re-
quires a dog of sharp scent and
thoroughly broken, too, to discover him
in his retreat behind some hassock in
the marsh, would make him one of the
game birds, all other considerations being
omitted. But then there is his beauti-
full rich brown coat ALI spangled with
various shades of one hue, and exquisite
gray of his neck and breast. He does
not need the glittering green of the
chongh nor the gaudy yellow OF the
oriole to contribute to his beauty-he is
feathered Beau Brumell himself, for
the same reason that she best dressed
man is he who is 80 quietly dressed that
no one can remember what ne had on.
Put him beside all the plovers, whim-
brels and godwits that you please, and
the golden-backed plover. first known
up on the Hampstead plains of Long
island, is the only one that has any
business with him in harmony of
plumage. The snipe spends his winters
in Southern California and Florida. and
when the willow buds begin to turn yel-
low at the Drinks of the
marshes, then the snipe may be
seen in wisps of six to ten,
hurrying hither and thither with zigzae
fight and qaerulous note. His long
fight to the north, for he spends March
in the northern part of this state, April
in Washington and British Columbia,
ends in making his nest in May at some
point in Alaska, providing he does not
domesticate near some of our vast snow
mountains.
IN POINT OF FLAVOR
the snipe ranks third, the first bird be-
ing the golden plover, the next the
wood duck, then the snipe, next the
canvasback duck and then the wood
cock. The latter bird is not found in the
Pacific states at all, but attains an enor-
NOUS growth in Japan and China, where
| the female bird often reaches twelve
ounces in weight. The stewards on the
| China steamers used to bring them over
on ice with the entrails drawn and their
bodies stuffed with powdered charcoal,
but cannot say ever relished them as
we'll as great many of our native birds
| lust shot and full of succulent Juice.
There is counterfeit in the snipe line
| q flock bird known as the ''dowitcber,' .
which often is killed at the rate of q
| dozen for both barrels. A favorite
| trick of old bay hunters was to pick
these birds and leave on their heads, and
as their bills are just as long as those o.
the ENGLISH snipe, and their bodies &C
near of the same size, it took gooc
Judge of birds to tell them apart. In thii
way the New York restaurants got
swindled for years before the trick wal
found out. The 'sdowitcher" goes il
large focks, and is easily whistled dowr
to a flock of decoys. The little island
| in the great 'sSouth bay'' of Long Islan(
are now all occupied as preserves for thu
shooting Of bay birds by clubs Of New
York spurtsmen, but in my boyhood'l