Inexperienced campers or hunters are told about a bird or animal called the snipe, as well as a (usually ridiculous) method of catching it - such as running around the woods carrying a bag, or making strange noises. Since the supposed snipe doesn't exist, the hunt never succeeds, no matter how foolishly the newcomer acts.

There is in fact a species of bird called a snipe: the success of the joke depends in part on the victim's ignorance of this, or at the very least of the fact that it is nearly impossible to trap a small, fast-moving wild animal with one's hands and/or a bag.