SPRING-TIME ON THE MOORS 49 



overhead, a dozen at a time, and their strange bleating 

 note comes down from mid air, alternating with the 

 sharp metallic "chip-chip" when flying free. That other 

 sound, the "drumming," is only heard as the snipe, when 

 in rapid flight, suddenly plunges vertically earthwards, 

 and always against the wind. 



Snipe only drum- — or, at least, drum loudest, against the 

 wind, and when thus hurling themselves headlong down- 

 wards. When flying down-wind, I have also heard the 

 sound produced by a sudden sidelong turn ; but it is feeble 

 by comparison. The annexed diagram (p. 48) roughly 

 illustrates the flight of a drumming snipe. The sound is 

 produced only during the dotted periods, and seems clearly 

 attributable to the wings (not the voice), since the key 

 changes with any alteration in the snipe's course through 

 the air, as at (a). The drumming commences about 

 mid-March, and I have heard it as late as July 15th; 

 but by that date it has lost its initial vigour. While 

 nesting, snipe have another note, croaking or querulous, 

 uttered when on the ground, or just rising therefrom ; I 

 have noticed it when the bird was perched on a rail. 



Another of the vernal signs which, one after another, 

 spring into being to attest the season, is the hum of the 

 humble-bee. It shall not be omitted, for there is a 

 thoroughly summer-like ring about it when first heard in 

 early April. I notice that one year (1905) I heard it as 

 early as March 25th. 



April 14. — Nest of grey wagtail, with four eggs, in 

 a crag on Coquetside ; the first nest of the pied wagtail 

 found that year was on the 17th, in an old stone-dyke. 

 It will thus be seen that the wagtails are actually laying 

 before the bulk of the summer-birds appear. 



April 15, 1905. — Willow- wrens singing everywhere 



D 



