Birding Bond

RichardTheBruce

Egret / ˈē·ɡret ; ˈē·ɡrət / noun
1. a heron, usually smaller with long feather plumes during breeding season
[See Heron, page 11]

Old French (aigrette, from Provençal aigreta--silver heron, or brush). German (heigaro, heron). Old Occitan (aigreta, aigron, or heron”). Latin (hairo). Frankish (haigro, or heron).

Egret (Casmerodius, Egretta or Ardea): wading birds with long necks and legs. The term Egret is applied based on appearance, inconsistently with other herons. Known for long feather plumes during breeding--a feature that was almost the death of them, with over-hunting for the feather to be used in fashion designs.

Species: Intermediate egret (Mesophoyx intermedia), Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis), Little egret (Egretta garzetta), (Eastern reef egret or Pacific reef heron (Egretta sacra), Western reef egret or Western reef heron (Egretta gularis), Snowy egret (Egretta thula), Reddish egret (Egretta rufescens), Slaty egret (Egretta vinaceigula), Black egret (Egretta ardesiaca), Chinese egret (Egretta eulophotes).

Intermediate egret

Cattle egret

Little egret

Eastern reef egret or Pacific reef heron, white and gray variations

Western reef egret or Western reef heron, white and gray variations

Snowy egret

Reddish egret

Slaty egret

Black egret

Chinese egret

RichardTheBruce

Birds of the West Indies, James Bond, 1961.

CATTLE EGRET Ardeola ibis (page 33)
Local name: Cattle Gaulin; Garrapatosa; Garza Africana; Garza del Ganado; Crabier Garde-boeuf.
Description: 21-25". A comparatively small white heron with a rather short neck and bill. Has tufts of pinkish buff feathers on pileum, lower neck and back when in fully adult breeding plumage, at other times with only the crown buffy; fill yellow, sometimes with a reddish tinge; legs yellow or pinkish. The immature is entirely white with a yellow bill; legs darker than those of adult. Fig. 18.
Habitat: Usually found in flocks among cattle, but often associates with herons when nesting.
Nidification: In West Indies, breeds in colonies on coastal islets and mangrove swamps. Nest like those of preceding species [Western reef heron], but eggs (2-3) paler.
Range: widespread in the West Indies, but not recorded from this region prior to 1952. A recent arrival in the New World, first recorded from the Guianas. Now occurs in North, Central and South America, including Trinidad. An Old World heron that has been undergoing a phenomenal extension of range; inhabits Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.

REDDISH EGRET Dichromanassa rufescens
Local names: Gaulin; Garza; Crabier.
Description: 27-32". A rather chunky heron. Body plumage dark slate-grey, paler on the underparts; head and neck brownish; bill distinctly bicouloured, the basal half flesh-colour, the anterior portion black; legs mostly slate-blue, the toes black. There is a white phase that is approximately as numerous in the West Indies as the dark. The bicoloured bill and shaggy appearance of the neck are the most obvious field characters. Fig. 19.
Habitat: Primarily a coastal heron.
Nidification: Like that of Common Egret.
Range: North-western and south-eastern Bahamas, Cuba, including the Isle of Pines and coastal cays, Hispaniola; casual in Puerto Rico and Jamaica. Also extralimital islands of the Caribbean Sea, Peninsula of Yucatan, Paraguana Peninsula (Venezuela), and Southern North America.

COMMON EGRET Casmerodius albus
Local name: White Gaulin; Shite Morgan; Garzon; Garzon Blanco; Garza Blancca; Garza Real; Crabier Blanc.
Description: 36-41". A rather large, long-necked heron. Entirely white; in nuptial plumage with beautiful dorsal plumes; bill yellow; legs blackish. Fig. 20.
Habitat: Fresh-water and salt-water swamps, marshes and lagoons.
Nidification: Colonial. The nests are situated in trees, usually mangroves. Eggs (2-3) bluish green.
Range: Virtually throughout the West Indies, but rare in the Lesser Antilles. The species is found on every continent.

SNOWY EGRET Egretta thula
Local names: White Gaulin; Garza Blanca; Garza de Rizos; Crabier Bland; Aigrette Blanche.
Description: 21-27". A pure white heron, strikingly plumed in nuptial plumage; bill black, yellow at base; legs (tarsi) black, yellowish green posteriorly when young; toes bright yellow. When feeding, more active than Little Blue Heron. Fig.21.
Habitat: Swamps, lagoons, rivers.
Nidification: Like that of Common Egret.
Range: Virtually throughout the West Indies, although known to breed only in the Greater Antilles. For the most part rare, particularly in the Bahamas and Lesser Antilles. Widespread in tropical and temperate America.

RichardTheBruce

Dr. No, Ian Fleming, 1958.
Chapter XIV – Come Into My Parlour

...
The electric clock in the cool dark room in the heart of the mountain showed four-thirty.

Outside the mountain, Crab Key had sweltered and stunk its way through another day. At the eastern end of the island, the mass of birds, Louisiana herons, pelicans, avocets, sandpipers, egrets, flamingoes and the few roseate spoonbills, went on with building, their nests or fished in the shallow waters of the lake. Most of the birds had been disturbed so often that year that they had given up any idea of building. In the past few months they had been raided at regular intervals by the monster that came at night and burned down their roosting places and the beginnings of their nests. This year many would not breed. There would be vague movements to migrate and many would die of the nervous hysteria that seizes bird colonies when they no longer have peace and privacy.

RichardTheBruce

The Man with the Golden Gun, Ian Fleming, 1965.
Chapter 7 – Un-real Estate

...
He walked farther back on the property. He wanted to locate his car. He found it on a deserted lot behind the west wing. The sun would get at it where it was, so he drove it forward and into the shade of a giant ficus tree. He checked the petrol and pocketed the ignition key. There were not too many small precautions he could take.

On the parking lot the smell of the swamps was very strong. While it was still comparatively cool, he decided to walk farther. He soon came to the end of the young shrubs and guinea grass the landscaper had laid on. Behind these was desolation--a great area of sluggish streams and swampland from which the hotel land had been recovered. Egrets, shrikes, and Louisiana herons rose and settled lazily, and there were strange insect noises and the call of frogs and gekkos. On what would probably be the border of the property, a biggish stream meandered towards the sea, its muddy banks pitted with the holes of land crabs and water rats. As Bond approached, there was a heavy splash and a man-sized alligator left the bank and showed its snout before submerging. Bond smiled to himself. No doubt, if the hotel got off the ground, all this area would be turned into an asset. There would be native boatmen, suitably attired as Arawak Indians, a landing stage, and comfortable boats with fringed shades from which the guests could view the "tropical jungle" for an extra ten dollars on the bill.

Chapter 14 – The Great Morass

…
His explosion into the mud released the stench of hell. Great bubbles of marsh gas wobbled up to the surface and burst glutinously. A bird screeched and clattered off through the foliage. James Bond waded out onto the edge of the embankment. Now his shoulder was really hurting. He knelt down and was as sick as a cat.

When he raised his head, it was to see Leiter hurl himself off the brake van, now a good two hundred yards away. He seemed to land clumsily. He didn't get up. And now, within yards of the long iron bridge over the sluggish river, another figure leaped from the train into a clump o: mangrove. It was a tall, chocolate-clad figure. There was no doubt about it! It was Scaramanga! Bond cursed feebly Why in hell hadn't Leiter put a finishing bullet through the man's head? Now there was unfinished business. The cards had only been reshuffled. The end game had still to be played!

The screaming progress of the driverless train changed to a roar as the track took to the trestles of the long bridge. Bond watched it vaguely, wondering when it would run out of steam. What would tie three gangsters do now? Take to the hills? Get the train under control and go on to Green Harbour and try and take the Thunder Bird across to Cuba? Immediately the answer came! Halfway across the bridge, the engine suddenly reared up like a bucking stallion. At the same time there came a crash of thunder and a vast sheet of flame, and the bridge buckled downwards in the centre like a bent leg. Chunks of torn iron sprayed upwards and sideways, and there was a splintering crash as the main stanchions gave and slowly bowed down towards the water. Through the jagged gap, the beautiful Belle, a smashed toy, folded upon itself and, with a giant splintering of iron and woodwork and a volcano of spray and steam, thundered into the river.

A deafening silence fell. Somewhere behind Bond, a wakened tree frog tinkled uncertainly. Four white egrets flew down and over the wreck, their necks outstretched inquisitively. In the distance, black dots materialized high up in the sky and circled lazily closer. The sixth sense of the turkey buzzards had told them that the distant explosion was disaster--something that might yield a meal. The sun hammered down on the silver rails, and a few yards away from where Bond lay, a group of yellow butterflies danced in the shimmer. Bond got slowly to his feet, and parting the butterflies, began walking slowly but purposefully up the line towards the bridge. First Felix Leiter, and then after the big one that had got away.

Leiter lay in the stinking mud. His left leg was at a hideous angle. Bond went down to him, his finger to his lips. He knelt beside him and said softly, "Nothing much I can do for now, pal. I'll give you a bullet to bite on and get you into some shade. There'll be people coming before long. Got to get on after that bastard. He's somewhere up there by the bridge. What made you think he was dead?"

CommanderRoss

Gob G520 Egrett



spyplane....

RichardTheBruce

Hard to work this one into the Bond films, I guess. But they could have tried harder.

M: I assume you have no ...egrets.

Bond: I don't. What about you?

M: Of course not. That would be unprofessional.

There is the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET), as installed with the NASA Compton Gamma Ray Observatory satellite. To better detect lower energy gamma rays from space. Interesting, but not very threatening. Didn't involve diamonds, either.

RichardTheBruce

Here is the Moto Guzzi 1939 Egretta, 250cc. Not sure I could see Bond on this.

CommanderRoss

Somehow I think the Egret is not a very Bondian bird. And satallites without diamonds are a bit boring aren't they? ;-)

RichardTheBruce

This might be more Flemingesque.

Shrike / SHrīk / noun
1. a songbird with a strong sharply hooked bill, plus a surprising carnivorous proclivity to impale its prey

Old English (Scrīc, thrush, also for its shrieking call). Middle Low German (Schrīk).

Shrike (Laniidae): The Butcher Bird, and a sort of wolf in sheep’s clothing. A passerine (perching bird), with the appearance of an innocuous songbird. On closer inspection, its downward-curved beak reveals predatory behavior. The Shrike's nickname is well-earned: it is known for preying on small animals, lizards, insects--and impaling them on thorns or barbed wire to either assist in carving off parts, or to store for eating later, or both. Predatory, displaying themselves on a perch to simultaneously protect a territory from competition and sight dinner.

Many times monogamous. Sometimes cooperative breeders--wherein one generation assists raising the next. Males attract mates with a cache of food or colorful items, courtship dances imitate the impaling of prey.

Genus Lanius: Tiger shrike (Lanius tigrinus), Souza's shrike (Lanius souzae), Bull-headed shrike (Lanius bucephalus), Brown shrike (Lanius cristatus), Red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio), Isabelline shrike (Lanius isabellinus), Red-tailed shrike (Lanius phoenicuroides), Burmese shrike (Lanius collurioides), Emin's shrike (Lanius gubernator), Bay-backed shrike (Lanius vittatus), Long-tailed shrike (Lanius schach), Grey-backed shrike (Lanius tephronotus), Mountain shrike or Grey-capped shrike, Lanius validirostris[/i]), Mackinnon's shrike (Lanius mackinnoni), Lesser grey shrike (Lanius minor), Loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus), Northern shrike (Lanius borealis), Great grey shrike or Northern shrike (Lanius excubitor), Southern grey shrike (Lanius meridionalis), [/i]), Steppe grey shrike (Lanius pallidirostris), Chinese grey shrike (Lanius sphenocercus), Grey-backed fiscal (Lanius excubitoroides), Long-tailed fiscal (Lanius cabanisi), Taita fiscal, (Lanius dorsalis), Somali fiscal (Lanius somalicus), Northern fiscal (Lanius humeralis), Southern fiscal (Lanius collaris), Uhehe fiscal (Lanius collaris marwitzi), São Tomé fiscal (Lanius newtoni), Woodchat shrike (Lanius senator), Masked shrike (Lanius nubicus).
Genus Corvinella: Yellow-billed shrike (Corvinella corvina).
Genus Urolestes: Magpie shrike (Urolestes melanoleucus).
Genus Eurocephalus: Northern white-crowned shrike (Eurocephalus ruppelli), Southern white-crowned shrike (Eurocephalus anguitimens).

Tiger shrike

Red-backed shrike

Bull-headed shrike

Loggerhead shrike

Northern shrike

Southern grey shrike

Chinese grey shrike

São Tomé fiscal

Masked shrike



Other birds carry the Shrike name: Helmetshrikes (Prionopidae); , Puffback shrikes, Bush shrikes, Tchagras and Boubous (Malaconotidae).

Even less related: Cuckoo-shrikes (Campephagidae).

Australasian Butcherbirds are not Shrikes, they are so named for the shared behavior.

RichardTheBruce

The Man With the Golden Gun, Ian Fleming, 1965.
Chapter 7 – Un-real Estate
…
He walked farther back on the property. He wanted to locate his car. He found it on a deserted lot behind the west wing. The sun would get at it where it was, so he drove it forward and into the shade of a giant ficus tree. He checked the petrol and pocketed the ignition key. There were not too many small precautions he could take.

On the parking lot the smell of the swamps was very strong. While it was still comparatively cool, he decided to walk farther. He soon came to the end of the young shrubs and guinea grass the landscaper had laid on. Behind these was desolation--a great area of sluggish streams and swampland from which the hotel land had been recovered. Egrets, shrikes, and Louisiana herons rose and settled lazily, and there were strange insect noises and the call of frogs and geckos. On what would probably be the border of the property, a biggish stream meandered towards the sea, its muddy banks pitted with the holes of land crabs and water rats. As Bond approached, there was a heavy splash and a man-sized alligator left the bank and showed its snout before submerging. Bond smiled to himself. No doubt, if the hotel got off the ground, all this area would be turned into an asset. There would be native boatmen, suitably attired as Arawak Indians, a landing stage, and comfortable boats with fringed shades from which the guests could view the "tropical jungle" for an extra ten dollars on the bill.

RichardTheBruce

Birds of the West Indies, James Bond, 1961.

LIST OF VAGRANTS

…
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius Iudoviciaus). One record from Andros.

j_w_pepper

The German word for the Laniidae family is Würger. The verb würgen has several meanings but they all have something to do with restrictions to a throat involved. Shrikes are most likely named Würger because they regorge (auswürgen) their prey to feed their young. Ich muss würgen means something makes you gag. Jemanden würgen means to choke someone (at the throat), jemanden erwürgen is strangling someone (with terminal effect). "Der Würger von Boston" (and in spite of the aforesaid, not the Erwürger), is not a Massachusetts kind of shrike (Lanius bostoniae?), but the Boston Strangler.

The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter plane was also called Würger - after the bird, not the kind of killer which might have been even more fitting.

RichardTheBruce

Shrikes are underused in fiction.

Some_Kind_Of_Hero

"Project Main Shrike. For which each of you will pay me—one hundred million worms."

"Plus half our shiny objects???"

"Under an exclusive marketing agreement, with me."

Some_Kind_Of_Hero

“These are outrageous terns.”

CommanderRoss

The Shrike certainly is a more Bondian Bird, or more Sherlokian? Anyway, in aviation the Focke Wulf (already a cool name) 190 isn't the only one with this rather fearsome name:

Curtiss A12 Shrike



Curtiss A 18 Shrike :


The Aero COmmander 500S Shrike Commander



And if you find you're followed by radar, send in an AGM-45 Shrike



but be aware you might get a Bell X9 shrike in return..



The A18 is an interesting beast, as it is one of the few front-line fighter aircraft at the beginning of WW2 that never saw combat.

RichardTheBruce

Yes, @Some_Kind_Of_Hero, lost opportunities there.

Argent on a chevron sable. Three pheasants. Good motto, eh? "The bird is not enough."

Of course, I know what he´s allergic to. Pheasants.

j_w_pepper

"Why did you break off your encounter with my pet heron?"
"I discovered it had a thrush on me."

RichardTheBruce

Snipe / snīp/ noun
1. a brown, medium-sized wading bird
2. a made-up creature used in assigning a mischievously impossible task (a snipe hunt).
3. in Navy slang, an engineering staff member (anonymous poem: "The Snipe's Lament”).

SNIPE'S LAMENT

Now each of us from time to time has gazed upon the sea
and watched the mighty warships pulling out to keep this country free.
And most of us have read a book or heard a lusty tale,
about these men who sail these ships through lightning, wind and hail.
But there's a place within each ship that legend's fail to teach.
It's down below the water-line and it takes a living toll
- - a hot metal living hell, that sailors call the "Hole."
It houses engines run with steam that makes the shafts go round.
A place of fire, noise, and heat that beats your spirits down.
Where boilers like a hellish heart, with blood of angry steam,
are molded gods without remorse, are nightmares in a dream.

Whose threat from the fires roar, is like a living doubt,
that at any moment with such scorn, might escape and crush you out.
Where turbines scream like tortured souls, alone and lost in Hell,
are ordered from above somewhere, they answer every bell.
The men who keep the fires lit and make the engines run,
are strangers to the light and rarely see the sun.
They have no time for man or God, no tolerance for fear,
their aspect pays no living thing a tribute of a tear.
For there's not much that men can do that these men haven't done,
beneath the decks, deep in the hole, to make the engines run.
And every hour of every day they keep the watch in Hell,
for if the fires ever fail their ship's a useless shell.

When ships converge to have a war upon an angry sea,
the men below just grimly smile at what their fate will be.
They're locked below like men fore-doomed, who hear no battle cry,
it's well assumed that if they're hit men below will die.
For every day's a war down there when gauges all read red,
twelve-hundred pounds of heated steam can kill you mighty dead.

So if you ever write their songs or try to tell their tale,
the very words would make you hear a fired furnace's wail.
And people as a general rule don't hear of these men of steel,
so little heard about this place that sailors call the "Hole."
But I can sing about this place and try to make you see,
the hardened life of the men down there, 'cause one of them is me.
I've seen these sweat-soaked heroes fight in superheated air,
to keep their ship alive and right, though no one knows they're there.

And thus they'll fight for ages on till warships sail no more,
amid the boiler's mighty heat and the turbine's hellish roar.
So when you see a ship pull out to meet a war-like foe,
remember faintly if you can, "The Men Who Sail Below."

verb
1. to shoot at a target while hidden from view.
(Origins in British India, 1770s, a measure of skill to become a sniper: to hunt and kill a snipe.)
2. to perpetrate a verbal attack.

Middle English (Snipe). Scandinavian, Icelandic (Mýrisnípa). Old Norse (Snípa). Dutch (Snip). German (Schnepfe).

Snipe (Scolopacidae ; Rostratulidae): a wading bird known for brown camouflage and elusive behavior. Its long, thin bill traps food even when closed: insect larvae, also some bugs, worms, invertebrates. Found in wetlands. In courtship, feathers produce a drumming sound during a power dive.

Coenocorypha:
Chatham snipe (C. pusilla ), Subantarctic snipe (C. aucklandica), Auckland snipe (C. a. aucklandica), Antipodes snipe (C. a. meinertzhagenae), Campbell snipe (C. a. perseverance), Snares snipe (C. huegeli), North Island snipe or Little Barrier Snipe (C. barrierensis), South Island snipe or Stewart Island Snipe (C. iredalei Rothschild), Forbes's snipe (C. chathamica), Viti Levu snipe (C. miratropica), New Caledonian snipe (Coenocorypha neocaledonica), Norfolk snipe (Coenocorypha sp.).
Gallinago:
Solitary snipe (Gallinago solitaria), Latham's snipe (Gallinago hardwickii), Wood snipe (Gallinago nemoricola), Pin-tailed snipe (Gallinago stenura), Swinhoe's snipe (Gallinago megala), African snipe (Gallinago nigripennis), Madagascar snipe (Gallinago macrodactyla), Great snipe (Gallinago media), Common snipe (Gallinago gallinago), Wilson's snipe (Gallinago delicata), South American snipe (Gallinago paraguaiae), Puna snipe (Gallinago andina), Noble snipe (Gallinago nobilis), Giant snipe (Gallinago undulata), Fuegian snipe (Gallinago stricklandii), Jameson's snipe (Gallinago jamesoni), Imperial snipe (Gallinago imperialis.
Lymnocryptes:
Jack snipe (Lymnocryptes minimus).

Campbell snipe

Solitary snipe

Snares snipe

Wood snipe

Madagascar snipe

South American snipe

Noble snipe

Giant snipe

Jack snipe

RichardTheBruce

Goldfinger, Ian Fleming, 1959.
Chapter Twenty-Two – The Last Trick

IT WAS two days later. Felix Leiter was weaving the black Studillac fast through the lanes of dawdling traffic on the Triborough bridge. There was plenty of time to catch Bond's plane, the evening BOAC Monarch to London, but Leiter enjoyed shaking up Bond's low opinion of American cars. Now the steel hook that he used for a right hand banged the gear lever into second and the low black car leapt for a narrow space between a giant refrigerator truck and a mooning Oldsmobile whose rear window was almost obscured by holiday stickers.

Bond's body jerked back with the kick of the 300 b.h.p. and his teeth snapped shut. When the manoeuvre was completed, and the angry hooting had vanished behind them, Bond said mildly, 'It's time you graduated out of the Kiddi-car class and bought yourself an express carriage. You want to get cracking. This pedalling along ages one. One of these days you'll stop moving altogether and when you stop moving is when you start to die.'

Leiter laughed. He said, 'See that green light ahead? Bet I can make it before it goes red.' The car leapt forward as if it had been kicked. There was a brief hiatus in Bond's life, an impression of snipe-like flight and of a steel wall of cars that someone parted before the whiplash of Leiter's triple klaxons, a hundred yards when the speedometer touched ninety and they were across the lights and cruising genteelly along in the centre lane.

RichardTheBruce

Dr. No, Terence Young, 1962.

1949 Humber Super Snipe Mk II Hearse.
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_555922-Humber-Super-Snipe-Mk-II-Hearse-1949.html

RichardTheBruce

From Russia With Love, Terence Young, 1963.
Armalite AR-7 Sniper Rifle.
http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/From_Russia_With_Love#Armalite_AR-7

Goldfinger, Guy Hamilton, 1964.
Armalite AR-7 Sniper Rifle.
http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Goldfinger#Armalite_AR-7

RichardTheBruce

Thunderball, Terence Young, 1965.

1965 Humber Super Snipe Series V Sedan. (on screen far right)
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_374136-Humber-Super-Snipe-1965.html

RichardTheBruce

Licence to Kill, John Glen, 1989.

Snipe Point, Key West, Florida Keys, Florida.

RichardTheBruce

Bond's first kill toward becoming a double-O.

Casino Royale, Ian Fleming, 1953.
Chapter Twenty - The Nature of Evil

...
He looked obstinately at Mathis.

'Well, in the last few years I've killed two villains. The first was in New York — a Japanese cipher expert cracking our codes on the thirty sixth floor of the RCA building in the Rockefeller centre, where the Japs had their consulate. I took a room on the fortieth floor of the next door skyscraper and I could look across the street into his room and see him working. Then I got a colleague from our organization in New York and a couple of Remington thirty-thirty's with telescopic sights and silencers. We smuggled them up to my room and sat for days waiting for our chance. He shot at the man a second before me. His job was only to blast a hole through the windows so that I could shoot the Jap through it. They have tough windows at the Rockefeller centre to keep the noise out. It worked very well. As I expected, his bullet got deflected by the glass and went God knows where. But I shot immediately after him, through the hole he had made. I got the Jap in the mouth as he turned to gape at the broken window.'

Bond smoked for a minute.

'It was a pretty sound job. Nice and clean too. Three hundred yards away. No personal contact. The next time in Stockholm wasn't so pretty...'

RichardTheBruce

From Russia With Love, Ian Fleming, 1957.
Chapter Nineteen - From the Mouth of Marilyn Monroe

...
Bond cautiously lifted his left hand to shade his eyes from the moon. There came a hiss of breath from behind his right ear. `He's coming.'

Out of the mouth of the huge, shadowed poster, between the great violet lips, half-open in ecstasy, the dark shape of a man emerged and hung down like a worm from the mouth of a corpse.

The man dropped. A ship going up towards the Bosphorus growled in the night like a sleepless animal in a zoo. Bond felt a prickle of sweat on his forehead. The barrel of the rifle depressed as the man stepped softly off the pavement towards them.

When he's at the edge of the shadow, he'll start to run, thought Bond. You damn fool, get the sights further down.

Now. The man bent for a quick sprint across the dazzling white street. He was coming out of the shadow. His right leg was bent forward and his shoulder was twisted to give him momentum.

At Bond's ear there was the clunk of an axe hitting into a tree-trunk. The man dived forward, his arms outstretched. There was a sharp `tok' as his chin or his forehead hit the ground.

An empty cartridge tinkled down at Bond's feet. He heard the click of the next round going into the chamber.

The man's fingers scrabbled briefly at the cobbles. His shoes knocked on the road. Then he lay absolutely still.

Kerim grunted. The rifle came down off Bond's shoulder. Bond listened to the noises of Kerim folding up the gun and putting away the Sniperscope in its leather case.

Bond looked away from the sprawling figure in the road, the figure of the man who had been, but was no more. He had a moment of resentment against the life that made him witness these things. The resentment was not against Kerim. Kerim had twice been this man's target. In a way it had been a long duel, in which the man had fired twice to Kerim's once. But Kerim was the cleverer, cooler man, and the luckier, and that had been that. But Bond had never killed in cold blood, and he hadn't liked watching, and helping, someone else do it.

Kerim silently took his arm. They walked slowly away from the scene and back the way they had come.

Kerim seemed to sense Bond's thoughts. `Life is full of death, my friend,' he said philosophically. `And sometimes one is made the instrument of death. I do not regret killing that man. Nor would I regret killing any of those Russians we saw in that office today. They are hard people. With them, what you don't get from strength, you won't get from mercy. They are all the same, the Russians. I wish your government would realize it and be strong with them. Just an occasional little lesson in manners like I have taught them tonight.'

RichardTheBruce

For Your Eyes Only, Ian Fleming, 1960.
"For Your Eyes Only"

...
M went on looking at Bond. He gave no encouragement, made no comment.

Bond said: "These people can't be hung, sir. But they ought to be killed."

M's eyes ceased to focus on Bond. For a moment they were blank, looking inward. Then he slowly reached for the top drawer of his desk on the left-hand side, pulled it open and extracted a thin file without the usual title across it and without the top-secret red star. He placed the file squarely in front of him and his hand rummaged again in the open drawer. The hand brought out a rubber stamp and a red-ink pad. M opened the pad, tamped the rubber stamp on it and then carefully, so that it was properly aligned with the top right-hand corner of the docket, pressed it down on the grey cover.

M replaced the stamp and the ink pad in the drawer and closed the drawer. He turned the docket round and pushed it gently across the desk to Bond.

The red sansserif letters, still damp, said: FOR YOUR EYES ONLY.

Bond said nothing. He nodded and picked up the docket and walked out of the room.

...
Echo Lake looked what it was — the luxurious retreat, in deep country, well away from atom bomb targets, of a millionaire who liked privacy and could probably offset a lot of his running expenses against the stud farm and an occasional good let. It would be an admirable refuge for a man who had had ten steamy years of Caribbean politics and who needed a rest to recharge his batteries. The lake was also convenient for washing blood off hands.

Colonel Johns closed his now empty file and tore the typewritten list into small fragments and dropped them in the wastepaper basket. The two men got to their feet. Colonel Johns took Bond to the door and held out his hand. He said: "Well, I guess that's all. I'd give a lot to come with you. Talking about all this has reminded me of one or two sniping jobs at the end of the War. I was in the Army then. We were under Monty in Eighth Corps. On the left of the line in the Ardennes. It was much the same sort of country as you'll be using, only different trees. But you know how it is in these police jobs. Plenty of paper work and keep your nose clean for the pension. Well, so long and the best of luck. No doubt I'll read all about it in the papers," he smiled, "whichever way it goes."

...
Bond thought: 'God Almighty!' He handed the paper back. So that was the score! He said with sympathy and respect: "You're quite a girl, Judy. It's a long walk from Jamaica. And you were going to take him on with your bow and arrow. You know what they say in China: 'Before you set out on revenge, dig two graves.' Have you done that, or did you expect to get away with it?"

The girl was staring at him. "Who are you? What are you doing here? What do you know about it?"

Bond reflected. There was only one way out of this mess and that was to join forces with the girl. What a hell of a business! He said resignedly: "I've told you my name. I've been sent out from London by, er, Scotland Yard. I know all about your troubles and I've come out here to pay off some of the score and see you're not bothered by these people. In London we think that the man in that house might start putting pressure on you, about your property, and there's no other way of stopping him."

Octopussy, Ian Fleming, 1966.
"The Living Daylights"

James Bond lay in the five-hundred-yard firing point of the famous Century Range at Bisley. The white peg in the grass beside him said 44, and the same number was repeated high up on the distant butt above the single six-feet-square target that, to the human eye and in the late summer dusk, looked no larger than a postage stamp. But through Bond's glass—an infrared sniperscope fixed above his rifle—the lens covered the whole canvas. He could even clearly distinguish the pale blue and beige colors in which the target was divided, and the six-inch semicircular bull's-eye looked as big as the half-moon that was already beginning to show low down in the darkening sky above the distant crest of Chobham Ridges.

James Bond's last shot had been an inner left. Not good enough. He took another glance at the yellow and blue wind flags. They were streaming across range from the east rather more stiffly than when he had begun his shoot half an hour before, and he set two clicks more to the right on the wind gauge and traversed the cross-wires on the sniperscope back to the point of aim. Then he settled himself, put his trigger finger gently inside the guard and onto the curve of the trigger, shallowed his breathing, and very, very softly squeezed.

The vicious crack of the shot boomed across the empty range. The target disappeared below ground, and at once the dummy came up in its place. Yes. The black panel was in the bottom right-hand corner this time, not in the bottom left. A bull's-eye.

"Good," said the voice of the chief range officer from behind and above him.

"Stay with it."

RichardTheBruce

Birds of the West Indies, James Bond, 1961.

COMMON SNIPE Capella gallinago
Description: 11". A well-known game bird with a long, straight bill. Upperparts black and brown with pale streaks; in flight shows some rufous on tail; often flushes from underfoot. Flight Rapid and tortuous.
Voice: A rasping note, uttered when flushed.
Habitat: Fresh-water marshes.
Range: Northern North America, Europe and Asia. Winters (in New World) south to Brazil. Transient and winter resident in West Indies, most numerous in Greater Antilles. (Aug. 19-early May.)

RichardTheBruce

Something for the Statistics discussion if it's not already covered.
So with the films and going by the meaning "to shoot from a hidden place", sniping includes:

UPDATED:

From Russia With Love, Terence Young, 1963.
Grant snipes an attacker of Bond at the gypsy camp.
imfdb.org/wiki/From_Russia_with_Love#Mauser_C96
Kerim Bey snipes Krilencu.
Bond snipes a SPECTRE helicopter from behind the rock.
imfdb.org/wiki/From_Russia_with_Love#Armalite_AR-7

Goldfinger, Guy Hamilton, 1964.
Tilly Masterson snipes at Goldfinger in the Alps.
imfdb.org/wiki/Goldfinger#Armalite_AR-7

Diamonds Are Forever, Guy Hamilton, 1971.
Bert Saxby snipes and loses.
imfdb.org/wiki/Diamonds_Are_Forever#Sporter_Mauser_Rifle

Live and Let Die, Guy Hamilton, 1973.
A passing car snipes Bond's driver Charlie.
https://bplusmovieblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/live-and-let-die-239.png?w=590&h=368
A voodoo head snipes Rosie Carver.
https://screenmusings.org/movie/dvd/Live-and-Let-Die/pages/Live-and-Let-Die-299.htm

The Man with the Golden Gun, Guy Hamilton, 1974.
Scaramanga snipes Gibson. And maybe Andrea.
imfdb.org/wiki/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun#Golden_Gun

The Spy Who Loved Me, Lewis Gilbert, 1977.
Wet Nellie snipes Naomi.
https://tapatalk.com/groups/americanscalemodel/imageproxy.php?url=i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll106/Dirkpitt289/PaperCaft%20James%20Bonds%20Lotus%20Esprit/IMG_20140915_231319_257_zps9e96dafc.jpg

Moonraker, Lewis Gilbert, 1979.
Tree sniper loses to OO7.
imfdb.org/wiki/Moonraker#Steyr_Mannlicher-Sch.C3.B6nauer_Sporter

For Your Eyes Only, John Glen, 1981.
Melina snipes Gonzalez using a crossbow.
imfdb.org/wiki/For_Your_Eyes_Only#Barnett_Commando_Crossbow
Kriegler snipes OO7.
imfdb.org/wiki/For_Your_Eyes_Only#Biathlon_bolt-action_rifle

The Living Daylights, John Glen, 1987.
Kara snipes an audience member.
imfdb.org/wiki/The_Living_Daylights#Winchester_Model_70
Bond snipes Kara.
imfdb.org/wiki/The_Living_Daylights#Walther_WA_2000
Bond snipes General Pushkin (but doesn’t mean it). Not hidden once the spotlight hits him.
imfdb.org/wiki/The_Living_Daylights#Walther_PPK

Licence to Kill, John Glen, 1989.
Bond snipes Franz.
imfdb.org/wiki/Licence_To_Kill#.22Signature_Camera_Gun.22

The World Is Not Enough, Michael Apted, 1999.
Renard snipes the man about to shoot Bond (deleted scene reveals the weapon).
imfdb.org/wiki/The_World_Is_Not_Enough#FPK_.2F_PSL
Cigar Lady snipes OO7 and MI6.
imfdb.org/wiki/The_World_Is_Not_Enough#Heckler_.26_Koch_G36K

Casino Royale, Martin Campbell, 2006.
Bond snipes/kneecaps Mr. White.
imfdb.org/wiki/Casino_Royale_(2006)#Heckler_.26_Koch_UMP-9

Skyfall, Sam Mendes, 2012.
Patrice snipes the art lover.
imfdb.org/wiki/Skyfall#Custom_Sniper_Rifle

That's what immediately came to mind. Any more?

Agent_99

All I have for you is my favourite Snipe, the Sopwith:


https://baesystems.com/en-uk/heritage/sopwith-snipe#

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