252 Northern Observations of Inland Birds 



occurs more or less regularly once, let us say, every 

 twenty seconds. Probably by the time the bird has 

 ceased to descend, the sound reaches one's ears, and 

 while it lasts the bird is once more mounting. I have, 

 however, heard a snipe drum within about fifty feet of 

 my ears, and the sound is then tremendous and of sur- 

 prising volume for so small a bird. 



When in the act of drumming the tail of the snipe 

 is tremendously fanned out, and the wings slanting 

 slightly tailwards may be seen to vibrate. The flight 

 feathers are separate, so that one can see the sky between 

 them, and each individual feather can be seen to quiver 

 like an upstanding aspen in a mill-race. If the sound were 

 vocal, why should the bird utter it only during those 

 headlong plunges with which, allowing for distance, 

 the sound invariably coincides ? Why is it never uttered 

 when the bird is on the ground or mounting, and, more- 

 over, how is it that the snipe is capable of uttering his 

 familiar ** chipp-churr " note at the same time as he drums? 

 Personally I have never heard the drumming and the 

 " chipp-churr '' concurrently, or rather, on the one or 

 two occasions when I have thought they concurred, I 

 have been unable to decide definitely whether or not the 

 manoeuvring of another snipe quite near interfered with 

 my judgment. But other field naturalists definitely 

 assert that they have heard a snipe giving forth the two 

 sounds at the same time, which seems to clinch the 

 argument that the sound is produced otherwise than 

 vocally. 



The real value of this drumming note has never been 

 definitely ascertained, but I remember an experience 

 of my boyhood which may be suggestive. I had never 

 before heard the drumming of the snipe, and hearing it 

 I mistook it for the noise of a snake or a lizard somewhere 

 among the grass tufts near by. I followed the sound 



