From Webster’s:
Snipe: n. any of various seabirds (family Scolopacidae) with a long, slender, flexable bill, esp. genus (Gallinago) living chiefly in marshy areas.
Am I the only one whose whole world-view is shattered by this revealation?
When I think of all the times as a kid I stayed home wallowing in my own smug skepticism while all the other kids were having the time of their lives down in the marshes, snipe hunting…sigh.
If it’s any comfort, I doubt that you can catch one by holding a bag open and having someone chase them into it.
What? Snipes are real?
I am so bummed.
You mean…those guys I bought all that beer for–they weren’t a National Geographic film team?
I feel so hurt… 
Is an appreciation of beauty a function of the human soul?
Next you’ll tell us that Toyota is set to offer a 2001 Thingamajig with All-Wheel-Drive and that new Dohickey transmission.
Hmph!
Of course there are snipe out there, you silly kids … you just can’t hunt 'em in the dark. 
You have hit upon a little subject which annoyed me as a Scout. The snipe hunt organizers would not explain the point of the hunt. What did we want snipes for? I knew we weren’t about to clean them and cook them ourselves. Nor was our scoutmaster, the only one else along. Why would we want to anyway? We had plenty of food, and it was a lot better than some puny birds.
And nobody would believe me at the end of the hunt, when it was revealed that it was a pointless exercise, that snipes actually did exist. Snipe hunts are like urban legends; they’re only promoted by people too dim to come up with clever things of their own. My pranks were creative, although more brutal.
Phaedrus, of course, was not shocked by the revelation lately. He has spent more time with a dictionary stuffed up his nose than many that I have known. I came across that fact about 5 years ago and yes I was shocked!
yeah jackalopes are real too. my uncle has the head of one mounted above his bar!
We live in an age that reads to much to be wise, and thinks too much to be beautiful–Oscar Wilde