(Gallinago delicata)
Of all the shore birds the jack snipe, English snipe or Wilson snipe
as it is variously called, is the most highly prized as a table
delicacy and furnishes the best sport with the dog and gun. Usually
lying well for the dog, erratic in its flight and quick on the wing,
the Wilson snipe is one of the most difficult birds to bring to bag.
It is not only erratic in its flight, but it is erratic in its nature
as well. One day it will be found on a given feeding ground in
abundance and on the next not one is to be seen, while possibly the
day following they are there again in great numbers. To this
uncertainty and the corkscrew flight, peculiar to it alone, is due
much of the charm that jack snipe shooting affords. While these birds
are commonly called jack snipe or English snipe, their proper name is
Wilson snipe, but like the rose, no matter what the name, they are
just as gamy and just as delicious. The Wilson snipe migrates here to
but little extent, and these migrations are altitudinal rather than
latitudinal. They breed commonly in all the mountain valleys and even
as low down as on the Sacramento marshes south of the city of the same
name. I found a pair breeding a few years ago in the low hills of San
Luis Obispo county not half a mile from the ocean beach.
=Color=--Head, black, with a central stripe of brown; back, a mixture
of dark brown, pale brown, yellow and dull white; greater
wing-coverts, dark brown, tipped with white; throat, dull white,
barred with brown; a dark stripe running from the base of the bill
across the eye to the occiput; under parts of the wings, dull white,
barred with black; tail feathers, dark brown, tipped with white, and
with a sub-terminal bar of black. No web between the toes.
=Nest and Eggs=--The nest is a very crude affair made on the ground
and with but little lining of any kind. It contains from three to four
grayish eggs, blotched with brown.
=Measurements=--Total length, 11 inches; wing, 5-1/2; bill, 3 inches.