Week 12 Story: The Hunter and the Snipe
The Hunter and the Snipe
The Snipe (Wikimedia Commons)
In the marshes just outside Bombay lived a beautiful snipe. His alluring feathers and long bill attracted the attention of the entire city as flew across the sky.
One day. a hunter living in Bombay saw the snipe and figured such a good-looking bird would be worth a large sum of money. The hunter decided to take up his gun and followed the bird back to the marshes outside the city.
When he arrived at the marsh, the hunter lost site of the snipe. The bird was able to camouflage himself with ease as the colors of the marsh matched his feathers. The hunter was forced to wait before the snipe took flight before he could get a shot off.
After an hour or so the bird emerged in flight from the marsh and was spotted by the hunter. The hunter took aim, caught the bird in his sight, and pulled the trigger. The crack of the gun rang out but the snipe dodged the bullet. The hunter could not believe it. He almost never missed. He quickly tried to get off another shot before the now frightened snipe flew back into the depths of the marsh. Again, he fired and missed.
The hunter continued to wait and and fire his gun at the snipe until dark. Something about the birds crooked flight pattern made it very difficult to hit. When night fell the hunter resolved to go home for the night and return the next day. For an entire week, the hunter showed up to the marsh each day and took aim at the bird each time he took flight but still had no luck in hitting the bird.
Despite the snipe's skill in dodging bullets, the hunter's persistence worried him. The snipe noticed the smoke that flew from the gun each time he was in flight so early one morning the bird decided to leave for the city and look for the hunter and his smoking gun. If he could catch the hunter by surprise on his way to the marsh, perhaps he could grab the gun right out of the hunter's hands. As he flew over the city he spotted smoke coming up from the ground. He swooped down towards the source and snatched it up. Unbeknownst to the snipe, the source was not the hunter's gun but a fat man's pipe.
Thinking he had completed his mission, the snipe returned to the marsh without fear. He perched himself on a tree overlooking the marsh and admired the beauty of his homeland. The hunter, however, had shown up as always. The snipe's position in the tree made him an easy target for the hunter and this time the hunter did not miss his mark.
To this day, snipes stay away from trees and rely on their unusual flight pattern to protect them from hunters. Only the sharpest shooters can hit a snipe which is why they are called snipers.
Author's Note: This story was written based on a nursery rhyme about a snipe who stole a fat man's snipe in Bombay. The nursery rhyme is very short and doesn't provide a lot of detail so I wanted to write a story that explained why the bird stole the pipe. I used Wikipedia to learn about the snipe and incorporated details about their habitat and snipe hunting that I found there. I did a Wikipedia trail post starting with the Snipe as well. Click here to see where I ended up
Hey Hannah!
ReplyDeleteI loved reading your story about the Hunter and the Snipe. Bombay is such a unique setting for the story, so I think that is really cool. Was their reasoning behind that, or did you just make it up? I am a huge fan of writing stories that explain a certain aspect of the world, so I loved reading this story! I think you did a great job, and I can't wait to read more.
Hey Hannah! I really liked that you saw the need for more details in the nursery rhyme you chose and went and added those details! I feel like that is the definition of being able to read and write like a writer. The details really provided a fun origin/backstory for this classic nursery rhyme and it made for a very fun read! Great job!
ReplyDeleteHi Hannah,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your story. I don't think I have ever just expanded on a story. I think that it isa cool way to explore these stories. Did you change any parts of the story? Did the snipe die in the original story too? I look forward to reading more of your work.
Hello again, Hannah! I enjoyed reading the story of “The Hunter and the Snipe,” though I’m sad about the snipe’s fate. I was curious where snipers got their name from—guess I know now. Regardless, I enjoyed your writing style and the way you turned a nursery rhyme into an animal folk story. There is one typo in the fifth paragraph (missing apostrophe in “bird’s crooked flight”), though that’s all I noticed. Overall, well done!
ReplyDeleteHi Hannah!
ReplyDeleteI loved this story! It was brilliant how you connected a simple nursery rhyme about a snipe stealing a pipe to the origin of how snipers got the name 'snipers.' I thought it was very interesting because I have never really thought about why sharp-shooters were called this (To be honest, until reading this story, I thought a snipe was just a made up bird used in "Up"). But the way you set up and created your story was perfect! Great job!
Hey Hannah!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your story! I haven’t heard this nursery rhyme before, so I read the original. I have to say, I do agree with you that it is very short and does not have much context. I really enjoyed that you elaborated on the story and gave us such in-depth detail. I don’t see why teachers don’t like Wikipedia! I think it has some useful information that we probably wouldn’t find anywhere else. Again congrats on a great story!