BY DUDLEY D. F. PARKER
There is no pleasanter way of spending a day than snipe-shooting, and there are many reasons why it is so popular. The birds are to be found almost anywhere where water and sedge-grass abound, though the best shooting-grounds are the salt-meadow-bordered bays on the coast. When a bird is shot there is small danger of losing it as compared to that in upland or thicket shooting, and a dog is not a necessity, as all wing-shots are generally made over water or short grass, where the bird can easily be recovered. Most boys are not so fortunate as to possess a good dog, and as very fine snipe-shooting can be had without one, it is especially fitted for them. The bird when "flushed" anywhere near the water will fly out over it.
THE BEACH SNIPE.
The bird that will be especially referred to in this paper will be the ordinary little beach snipe that is so common everywhere, though what remarks apply to him will, with very slight exceptions, apply to all of the snipe family.
The sand-piper always flies on a dead level, about a foot above the water, unless the flock is flying high to escape some obstruction. He propels himself with a jerky motion of the wings, a stroke, and then an instant's soaring, at a pretty fair rate of speed. The "yellow leg," a larger variety, on the contrary, flies quite high, and sometimes in the formations adopted by the wild-duck. They can always be recognized by their peculiar whistling call. The predominating colors of the snipe family are gray and white, though some few have a touch of brown on the back plumage. There is also a slight variation in the length and shape of the bill, though the character is about the same in all. The legs of the snipe are long and a greenish-yellow in color; those of the "yellow leg" being almost a bright yellow. The sand-piper is a very rapid walker, or perhaps, more properly, runner, and this remarkable facility should always be borne in mind when a bird is only "winged." When not frightened they usually travel in a very irregular course along a beach, but when frightened they will make as straight a line as the best sprinter. These little birds are very good swimmers and divers, remaining under water for a long time, propelling themselves with great rapidity by the use of their wings.
Sand-piper Snipe is a very sociable little fellow, and travels with lots of company, though the snipe are split up into small flocks during the latter part of June, July, and the first part of August, when they are breeding, usually beginning to flock again about the middle of August. No true sportsman will shoot during this season. Aside from that, it is against the game laws; the old birds are not fit to eat, and there are in the latter part of the breeding season large numbers of small flocks of young birds who are too small to be of any use, and are so tame that it is possible to decimate a whole flock by a single barrel as they are bunched on the beach. This is not the aim of the sportsman.
A word about the game laws. You should always respect them. They were made for your and all sportsmen's benefit, and not as a means of annoyance. If you kill the birds whilst breeding, or destroy the young, there will soon be little left in the country to shoot.
There are three times to find the snipe at rest: in the early morning, shortly after sunrise; at low tide, when the ground usually under water is exposed, so they can pick up the sand insects and feed on the sea-grasses that the high-water has brought up; and in the evening, when the flocks are coming to rest for the night. The early morning and low-water are the best times, as the birds will be found along the water's edge feeding, whilst in the evening they usually retire some distance inland on the meadows, and after they are settled in the grass for the night it is pretty hard to get them up again. There is sometimes a pretty fair show of finding the birds on the beach feeding just before sundown. It must be remembered, however, that the strength and direction of the wind have much to do with the number of snipe. The above is in fair weather, and now for the ideal "snipe weather."
If you live on the Jersey coast, or any of the neighboring ones, and wake up one September morning with a good southeaster, which has been blowing since the previous evening, rattling around your windows, accompanied by drizzle, get up and put on your shooting "togs," oil your gun well, and prepare for a good day's sport. The birds do not like to fly in a high wind, and will almost always come up into the coast bays and rivers to feed on the overflowed meadows that such storms produce.