Determination of the taxonomy of Coenocorypha snipe has been hindered by lack of material, erroneous locality data, misidentified specimens and confused nomenclature.

The outer tail feathers were narrow and stiffened, a modification to produce the distinctive roaring sound of the nocturnal "hakawai" aerial display.

The species differed from others in the genus by details of plumage patterning and shading – in having a scalloped breast and flanks with rufous and cinnamon tinges.

[3] One of the few people to make any kind of field study of the South Island snipe was naturalist Herbert Guthrie-Smith who reported on a 1923 visit to Big South Cape Island in his book Sorrows and Joys of a New Zealand Naturalist (1936): "Snipe begin to lay about the end of October and continue during the early November.

Even when suddenly put off the nest with a violent start – and thrice I hardened myself to this iniquity – the perturbed bird would merely emerge with full spread pinions from its isolated humpie of manuka.

Of this nest the eggs, also two in number and also large in proportion to the size of the Snipe, were greeny brown in hue with dark spottings and blotches evenly distributed over the whole surface.

The long bill is held well forward after the manner of the Kiwi – a Lilliputian stride or two, five or six rapid spearings into the ground, a brief hesitation, a prolonged sniff, a deeper and more assured perforation of the spongy soil, a quick little mouse-like run, a pause, an advance, a downward thrust of the beak, so they moved ahead.

Each minute red worm hardly thicker than a pin could upon withdrawal of the bill always be seen dangling at its extremity ere being passed downwards and swallowed.