Elanora Heights Home PageOur Research ProjectsWarriewood Wetlands Project

 Warriewood Wetlands Birds
Gallinago hardwickii
Japanese Snipe

DESCRIPTION:

This snipe has a very long beak and white stripes along its wings. It has white stripes above and below its eye. 

Latham's Snipe
Japanese Snipe

HABITAT:

Grassy clearings in forests or otherwise in bogs and at the edge of swamps and marshes.

DISTRIBUTION:

This bird has not been seen in the Warriewood Wetlands since 1983 but it is found all along Eastern Australia and Tasmania during the Summer.

INTERESTING FACTS: 

The Japanese or Latham's Snipe breeds mainly in Japan but also in the Kurile Islands. It migrates to Australia when the weather turns cold in Japan. It forages in soft mud for worms and other invertebrates.

We had an email from Valda Dedman of the Geelong Field Naturists Club who said :

On the 1st September we held a "Snipefest" to welcome Latham's Snipe back from Japan. 120 children did face painting, mask making, a nature walk (they saw up to 30 snipe) and invertebrate "dipping" for snipe food.

We had an email from Genshi Torigoe or Yuge Elementary School in Okayama, Japan, who said :

We have a Japanese legend about the snipe. It is a tale from Ainu myth. I will tell you something about the story and here it is :-

Chippiyaku Kamui --- The Snipe that Fell from Heaven.


Drawn by
Monique and Thomas

A Japanese Snipe named "Chippiyaku Kamui" (Kamui means god in Ainu language) was sent by the gods of Heaven to see if "Ainu"(human being) could live in the lower world. The lower world was so beautiful that the snipe forgot gods' order and played in the beautiful world for a while.

Spring, summer and autumn passed.
And then the snipe remembered gods' order. It flew hurriedly through thesix skies and it returned to the heaven.

However, the gods got angry and reproached it, till finally they hit it with sticks and punished it, and threw it down to the world below.


Drawn by
Monique and Thomas


Drawn by
Monique and Thomas

The snipe had a hard time in the cold winter lower world. It spent many days healing its body. And spring came again. When the colorful flowers blossomed, it suddenly missed its homeland.

The snipe flew to the high sky, but when it remembered the gods reproaching and punishing it, it could not ascend any further.

"Chippi-yak, chippi-yak, chippee-yak ... I sing, as I fly up to the heavens, but then, I am overcome with sadness, that is why I make sudden dives over and over again, tearing through the sky with a piercing sound of feathers.


Drawn by
Monique and Thomas

People of tomorrow, Birds.
Do as you are told, or you will end up like me.
So said the snipe to end his tale."

Ainu people think that all living and nonliving things have a soul and that the soul is immortal. They believe that heaven is a warm beautiful place with no troubles nor pains. The lower world must be more beautiful than heaven because the immortal soul comes back ..... transmigration of the soul.

If you make something dirty, it should be cleaned.
If you hurt something, it must be recovered.
You should not hunt plants and animals more than necessary.
You should not take all.
Because you come back this world again after death.

Bibliography :

Birds of Australia
Multimedia CD published by Websters

LABO CD library in Japan

Research by 4/5S

duckGo to top of page

Elanora Heights Primary School Computer Co-ordinator : Judith Bennett

This page was last modified on 6th November, 1998