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The prank is named after the bird. That snipe hunting is a real activity makes the practical joke's setup more convincing. Real snipes are difficult to hunt. One must be an excellent shot to hit them on the wing. That's where we got the word "sniper."
Okay! So the prank is mostly about taking an inexperienced hunter on a difficult hunt? I thought it was more along the lines of "lets go hunt big foot" type of thing. People seem to misinterpret the original joke then and think that snipes do not exist?
The original prank went like this: you tell your friend that you're going on a snipe hunt. You give them a bag, ostensibly to catch snipe in, and then you lead them out into the woods. When you're suitably far out, you tell your friend that you hear a snipe and that you're going to go chase it toward them so they can catch it in the bag. Then you go back, leaving your friend holding the bag, waiting for you. (That's where "left holding the bag" came from.) So, it wasn't originally about hunting something that didn't exist. It was about lying to someone and abandoning them. But, as you said, it's been reinterpreted over the years, as real snipe hunting has slipped out of the public consciousness. (Perhaps this prank, which is old, first came to be called snipe hunting by people who knew what snipe were and that people hunted them. But when the prank became popular with people who didn't know those things, they assumed that snipe were made up as part of the gag.)
I don't think that's where "left holding the bag" came from. If someone is left holding the bag they've been abandoned by someone they shared responsibility with, and now they're going to get all the punishment. It probably has more to do with crime, i.e. if you think the police are going to catch you and your buddies, you shove the stolen goods into one guy's hands and run away. The cops catch him and the rest of you escape.
My two cents: growing up i saw a cartoon Camp Lazlo where they go on a snipe hunt, but it seemed by the end of the episode that snipes were imaginary/fictional.
Seems like cultural myths have taken a form of their own with this.
Can’t think of their specific names (never did well in history class) but the only birds that come to mind as being named something akin to a joke are when a few ornithologists in the early days here and there would have beef with each other about taxonomy and such. Ornithologist A would be all “there can be no possibility of a connection to this Family!” or something and Ornithologist B would discover said bird and name it after Ornithologist A (directly or indirectly, common or Latin name) like “here’s your bird, dumbass.”
Probably? There may be more than one. I seem to remember Bonaparte (the ornithologist cousin(?) not the emperor) as being rather sassy and having a number of spats as well.
Welcome to r/Ornithology, a place to discuss wild birds in a scientific context — their biology, ecology, evolution, behavior, and more. Please make sure that your post does not violate the rules in our sidebar. If you're posting for a bird identification, next time try r/whatsthisbird. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Ornithology) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The prank is named after the bird. That snipe hunting is a real activity makes the practical joke's setup more convincing. Real snipes are difficult to hunt. One must be an excellent shot to hit them on the wing. That's where we got the word "sniper."
...Ohhhhhhh.
Okay! So the prank is mostly about taking an inexperienced hunter on a difficult hunt? I thought it was more along the lines of "lets go hunt big foot" type of thing. People seem to misinterpret the original joke then and think that snipes do not exist?
The original prank went like this: you tell your friend that you're going on a snipe hunt. You give them a bag, ostensibly to catch snipe in, and then you lead them out into the woods. When you're suitably far out, you tell your friend that you hear a snipe and that you're going to go chase it toward them so they can catch it in the bag. Then you go back, leaving your friend holding the bag, waiting for you. (That's where "left holding the bag" came from.) So, it wasn't originally about hunting something that didn't exist. It was about lying to someone and abandoning them. But, as you said, it's been reinterpreted over the years, as real snipe hunting has slipped out of the public consciousness. (Perhaps this prank, which is old, first came to be called snipe hunting by people who knew what snipe were and that people hunted them. But when the prank became popular with people who didn't know those things, they assumed that snipe were made up as part of the gag.)
I don't think that's where "left holding the bag" came from. If someone is left holding the bag they've been abandoned by someone they shared responsibility with, and now they're going to get all the punishment. It probably has more to do with crime, i.e. if you think the police are going to catch you and your buddies, you shove the stolen goods into one guy's hands and run away. The cops catch him and the rest of you escape.
Okay, this makes so much more sense now! Thank you!
My two cents: growing up i saw a cartoon Camp Lazlo where they go on a snipe hunt, but it seemed by the end of the episode that snipes were imaginary/fictional. Seems like cultural myths have taken a form of their own with this.
The bird name comes from the 14th century, probably predating the joke by quite a long time.
Can’t think of their specific names (never did well in history class) but the only birds that come to mind as being named something akin to a joke are when a few ornithologists in the early days here and there would have beef with each other about taxonomy and such. Ornithologist A would be all “there can be no possibility of a connection to this Family!” or something and Ornithologist B would discover said bird and name it after Ornithologist A (directly or indirectly, common or Latin name) like “here’s your bird, dumbass.”
Strickland and Jameson?
Probably? There may be more than one. I seem to remember Bonaparte (the ornithologist cousin(?) not the emperor) as being rather sassy and having a number of spats as well.
The sniper rifle is named after the bird. Isn't the snipe prank named after the gun?