72 Snipe ' drumming 



to be vocal, we come to the third sound made by a Snipe, round which 

 a fierce controversy has raged for the past lOO years or more. The 

 c]uestion is as burning now as tlien, and seems no nearer settlement. 



This noise has been likened to many beasts, e.g., insects, lambs, 

 goats and horses ; it is very varioush- described as " humming, 

 droning, drumming, bleating, or neighing." Tennxson speaks of 

 the swamp, where hums the dropj:)ing snipe."* 



Provincial names for the Snipe, based on tliis noise, are found 

 in very many languages ; and one may almost trace the geographical 

 range of the Snipe in the breeding season, bv obser\'ing in what 

 countries such names are found to occur. 



As the sound is almost entirely confined to the breeding season, 

 these names naturally cease as one passes on to countries outside 

 the breeding range. 



I have drawn up a table of such names as 1 have been able to 

 collect, together with their literal translation in Engli'^h ; and you 

 will observe that even the small number in mv list covers a very 

 considerable portion of the Snipe's breeding area- -that they do not 

 cover the whole, is simply due to the difficulty in unearthing them 

 from little-known languages, like many of the branches of the 

 Sclavonic tongue. I believe that every country where the Snipe 

 breeds has some name for this bird, ifounded on the drumming 

 noise. 



PROVINCL\L NAMES OF THE COMMON SNIPE DERIVED FROM THE 

 " DRUMMING" OR " BLEATING "-NOISE MADE BY THE BIRD IN THE 



SPRING 



Danish — Hingste/iigl=" stallion-bird " ; Myrc-hest—" marsh-horse." 



NoRWEGi.AN — Horse-gjdk=" horse-cuckoo" ; Rosst'-gaiik=i"hovsc-cv.ckoo" ; Hnmrc- 



gauk or -gjog = " neighing-cuckoo " ; Himmcr-hest = " sky-horse " ; 



Skudde-folc or Skodde-fol^" misi-io-al." 

 Swedish — Hors-g6k= " horse-cuckoo " ; Himmeh-gd=" sky-goat." 

 Icelandic — Hrossa-gaiikiir=" horse-cuckoo." 



Orkneys and Shetlands — Horse-gouk, Hoars-goiik or Horsc-gok=" horse-cuckoo." 

 German — Himmels-ziege = " sky-he-goat " ; Himmels-geiss = " sky-she-goat " ; 



Haber-bock=" oats-goat." 

 English — Moor-lamb (Lines.) ; Sitnuncr-lamb (Norfolk). 

 Gaelic — Gabhar-athair =" goat-of-the-air " (Perthshire and the Western Islands) ; 



Meann-an-athair=" kid-of-the-air " ; A'^osg^ imitation of the ' drumming' 



sound (Harris, Lewis, and N. Uist). 

 Irish — Gabhar-reodktha = " goat-of-the-frost " ; Gabhar-oidhche =" goat-of-the- 



night " ; Meannan-aeir or Meannan-aerdha = " kid-of-the-air." 

 Welsh — Gafr-wanivyn = " goat-of-the-Spring " ; " Gafr-y-gors = " goat-of-the- 



marshes " ; Dafad-y-gors=" sheep-of-thc-marshes." 



♦Tennyson " On a Mourner," line 9. 



