Snipe ' drumming' 79 



the only position in wliich the full current of air from the wings 

 could be played upon the two outer feathers. 



The angle at which the bird is descending is also of importance. 

 A Snipe is never heard to " drum " with a closed tail, a strong 

 point in favour of the tail taking some part in the production of the 

 sound. Nor is the Snipe ever heard to " drum " with fully-opened 

 wings as in ordinar\- flight ; for the movement of air caused by the 

 wings is not then directed on to the tail, even if the latter be fully 

 expanded, but outside it. 



But " drumming " is heard with half closed wings and fully 

 expanded tail, and it is a reasonable supposition that these latter 

 positions are a necessity in the generation of the sound, each taking 

 its respective share, the wings, perhaps, being the originators of 

 the vibrator}' waves, and the tail the instrument whereby they are 

 converted into sound. 



I regret having been compelled to spend so much time over the 

 sounds, vocal and otherwise, which a Snipe makes : but the 

 " drumming " noise is so peculiar and so characteristic, that I felt 

 justified in making an effort to explain the action of the bird during 

 the " drumming " flight, and in discussing at some length the theories 

 of the mechanism whereby the sound is produced. 



Now for the Snipe and his life history. If you wish to study the 

 Snipe, you must visit him in his summer quarters. 



It is in the spring and summer that the snipe can be studied 

 best. 



In the winter you may shoot him, but you learn little or nothing 

 of his ways ; a wild " sceap " from the side of a ditch, a zig-zagging 

 whirl of feathers, and you fire. If you kill, you have the satisfaction 

 of adding him to your bag, or if you miss, you have the small 

 consolation of watching his powerful flight as he betakes himself 

 to some less disturbed spot. He flashes into sight and out of 

 sight in a moment, and that is all you see of his habits or learn of his 

 economy. 



Ver\' different is the Snipe in spring. Man appears then to 

 have but little terror for him. His natural shyness has gone, fear 

 is thrown to the winds, and you may watch the bird hour by hour 

 from sunrise to sunset courting, flirting, and indulging in those 

 wonderful musical flights from which so many of his provincial names 

 have been derived. 



\\^e will suppose that it is the month of May, and that you have 

 decided to make an early start for the snipe-marsh. Choose a bright, 

 sunshiny morning, for all birds are at their best under favourable 

 conditions of weather, and not least the Snipe. In cold, dull weather, 

 in wind and rain, they are but little in evidence ; most of them are 

 squatting and silent on the ground, or skulking in the rough herbage, 

 and you may spend the whole morning on the marsh and hardly 

 hear or see a bird. 



The dew, this morning, is hanging heavily on the marsh grasses 



