iQO Our Bird Friends. 



I clung to them and k pt silencr, l)a(le niu haw 

 no fear, as it was 'iiobbiit a Hanniier blate," the 

 local Yorkshire name for the Conniion Snipe. Since 

 that eventful evening I have heard the bird thousands 

 upon thousands of times, and watched it during dull 

 days mount the air to great heights and then pre- 

 cipitate itself headlong earthwards at territic speed, 

 meanwhile uttering' its stran<''e drunmiinij- or bleat- 

 ing note, which is a male accomplishment peculiar 

 to the l)ree(ling season. An odd thing about it is 

 that after hundreds of years of observation by the 

 best ornithologists the world has pro(biee(l, no ni.in 

 yet knows for certain how the bird makes this 

 wondertiil s()un<l. Some contend that it is of vocal 

 origin, others that it is made by the rapid \ibration 

 of the wings as the bird descends throngh space, 

 whilst a third school claims that it is the result of 

 air rushing through the stiff outspread tail leathers. 



Diuhig warm evenings in April and May the 

 air over a faN'oiiritu breeding swamp is filled with 

 the drumming of Snipe and their shar}) (ijic/,--(ij ich- 

 or tjtrk-(ju-k notes, which are uttered as they Hy 

 n[)wards to prepare for a new descent. 



'[\\v C'uckoo often sinii^s durinij- the night, when 

 1 have had some rare good fun with the bird by 

 imitating its notes and making it angry, in the 

 same wa\- that I used to break the slunibeis of 

 many an old rooster, Avhen a mischievous boy, by 

 crowing outside his house and making him believe 

 a very lively rival wa>i waiting to interview him. 



