Reflections on Snipe

Rating:
Summary: Sporting tales from around the world
Review: Here is a 130-page collection of stories about hunting snipe. The narratives are drawn from several sources, and they span more than 150 years.

This is a story book that covers a lot of information about the natural history of snipe, but it is not a natural history reference or how-to book. There is no index of the book's contents. There are 23 black & white illustations based on pencil drawings of snipe by Eldridge Hardie, an artist whose work has been published in such highbrow magazines as Gray's Sporting Journal, Sporting Classics and Double Gun Journal. The author, Worth Mathewson, has contributed articles to and served as an editor of the same sorts of publications.

In this book Mathewson draws on his extensive experience hunting snipe in Oregon, which he has done almost every year since 1956. The author relates the story of a snipe hunt in Louisiana in 1994, but many of the hunting stories from other parts of the world where contributed by others. In total, the stories describe snipe hunts in South and North America, Siberia, France, Ireland, Scotland and Africa.

The author's style and interests are so well aligned with those of some of the other contributors to the book that it is easy to lose track of whose writing is being read in spite of Mathewson's clear citations. There are stories of snipe hunts by Colin McKelvie of Scotland (in Ireland, late 1960's); Nick Hahn, consulate general of the Unites States to Ecuador (in Paraguay, 1988); and John Reiger, associate professor of history at Ohio University (in the Florida Everglades, 1975-76). There is also a 12-page translation of portions of "Les Becassines et Leurs Chasses," which was published in France in 1986 by Dr. Michel Devort. This section contributes greatly to the cosmopolitan nature of the book by describing snipe hunts in France.

If you are one of the few wingshooters who chase snipe, this book is a must. If you are a wingshooter with access to wetlands and are interested in a sport that is more challenging than waterfowling, here is a window into a new obsession.