Chap. XIII.] 



INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 



61 



Fig. 42. — Outer tail-feather of Scolopax frenata. 



with surprising velocity to the earth. The sound is emit- 

 ted only during this rapid descent. No one was able to 

 explain the cause, until M. Meves observed that on each 

 side of the tail the outer feathers are peculiarly formed 

 (Fig. 41), having a stiff", sabre-shaped shaft, with the ob- 

 lique barbs of unusual length, the outer webs being strong- 

 ly bound together. He found that, by blowing on these 

 feathers, or by fastening them to a long thin stick and 

 waving them rapidly through the air, he could exactly re- 

 produce the drumming noise made by the living bird. 

 Both sexes are furnished with these feathers, but they are 

 generally larger in 

 the male than in the 

 female, and emit a 

 deeper note. In 

 some species, as in 

 /S, frenata (Fig. 42), 

 four feathers, and in 

 JS. javensis (Fig. 43), 

 no less than eight, on each side of the tail, are greatly 

 modified. Different tones are emitted by the feathers of 

 the different species when waved through the air; and the 

 ScolojKixWilsonii of the United States makes a switching 

 noise while descending rapidly to the earth. 52 



In the male of the Chamwpetes unicolor (a large galli- 

 naceous bird of America) the first primary wing-feather 

 is arched toward the tip and is much more attenuated than 

 in the female. In an allied bird, the Penelope nigra, Mr. 

 Salvin observed a male, which, while it flew downward 

 " with outstretched wings, gave forth a kind of crashing, 



Fig. 43.— Outer tail-feather of Scolopax javensis. 



52 See M. Meves's interesting paper in 'Proc. Zool. Soc.' 1858, p. 199. 

 For the habits of the snipe, Macgillivray, ' Hist. British Birds,' vol. iv. p. 

 371. m For the American snipe, Captain Blakiston, 'Ibis,' vol. v. 1863, 

 p. 131 



