^2 Common Snipe 



tjreast was directed to the sky, and his back to the ground. He then 

 made a sudden recov'ery, and flew upwards again to resume his 

 drumming flight, while the other Snipe, who had been a silent, though, 

 I hope, admiring spectator, separated from him, and dropped down 

 again into a distant patch of rushes. 



I watched the lirst bird for another half-an-hour, and he 

 drummed continually, and was still drumming when I left, but he 

 gave no further acrobatic display. 



To return to the drumming. Sometimes the two phases of the 

 cycle occupy less time — one-and-a-half seconds for the drumming to 

 five for the interval. As far as my observations went, the ratio 

 between the drumming and the interval was always about the same, 

 namely 1-3 or a little more. 



Tired at last of standing on the threshold, you walk into the 

 precincts. The drumming is everywhere, to right, to left, over 

 vour head, and behind you. A bird on its downward stoop, passes 

 within 30 or 40 feet of you, giving a perfect opportunity for noting 

 the stiff body turned a little sideways, and the tremulous quiver of 

 the half-closed wings. 



On a notice-board close by, threatening trespassers with direst 

 punishment, another Snipe is standing jerking its body backwards 

 and forwards, much in the way of the Redshank, and monotonously 

 calling " jick-jack "-" jick-jack." He appears to be quite as much 

 at home on the sign-board as on the ground, despite the fact that his 

 toes do not seem particularly well adapted for perching. 



As if to show you, however, that he can rise to greater heights 

 than mere sign-boards, he " jick-jacks " himself off the board, and 

 commences to ascend, still monotonously calling. 



Perhaps he has already done his aerial turn and is tired : any- 

 way, he does not for the moment join the drumming division, but 

 flies in the direction of a narrow belt of trees bordering the marsh 

 on the west. Here is a tall poplar, killed like most of the larger 

 timber by the inrush of seawater in 1897. 



Selecting a small cross branch within a few feet of the top, he 

 complacently settles on it, and resumes his quaint bows and 

 hi -syllabic song. 



This particular tree is 70 feet high or more, but the Snipe is 

 as well content with his present lofty position, as he was with the 

 notice-board or with the ground itself. 



The so-called arboreal habits of the Snipe were hotly disputed 

 at one time, but in these days, the unbehevers are few.* 



Many Waders whose feet are constructed on similar lines to 



' those of the Snipe are exceedingly fond of perching on some elevated 



position — a habit which is entirely confined to the breeding season. 



Redshanks, for instance, are partial to perching on bar-ways, 

 gate-posts and even the sails of a windmill at rest. On the Thorpe 



* Stevenson, " Birds of Norfolk," 1890, ii., p. 329, asserts definitely that Snipe perch on 

 trees, but that this habit is confined to the breeding-season. — Editor. 



