EUROPEAN SNIPE 79 



Opinions differ widely as to the means by which this curious sound is pro- 

 duced. Meves declared that the tail feathers were the instrument, and claimed 

 to have produced it artificially by the snipe's tail feathers fastened to the end 

 of a long stick and swung through the air. Others hold that the tremulous 

 motion of the tense wing feathers is the agency ; a third theory is that the 

 sound is vocal. The reader is at liberty to take his choice. I incline to the 

 last, from analogy. I have seen the great snipe go through exactly the 

 same evolutions at the nest, including the tremulous wings on the descending 

 movement, and in perfect silence ; I have watched the wood, the green, the 

 broad-billed sandpipers, the Kentish plover. Temmick's and the little stint, 

 and the red-necked phalarape, go through the same movements also at the 

 nest, but in these cases the noise which accompanied the descending stage 

 of the performance was unmistakably vocal. 



Dr. Leonhard Stejneger (1885) was also much inclined to the 

 vocal theory when he wrote : 



Not only this power of the sound, but even more so the nature of the 

 tune itself convinced me that it originates from the throat and not in any 

 way either from the tail or the wing feathers, as suggested by many Euro- 

 pean writers. It is true that the wings are in a state of very rapid vibration 

 during the oblique descent when the note is uttered, but this circumstance 

 does not testify only in favor of the theory of the sound being produced by 

 the wing, as the vibration most conclusively accounts for the quivering throat 

 sound. Anybody stretching his arms out as if flying, and moving them rapidly 

 up and down and simultaneously uttering any sound is bound to " bleat." 

 Having heard, however, from my early days, of the wing or tail theories as 

 the only orthodox ones, I did not feel convinced of the correctness of my own 

 opinion until one evening I heard another bird of the same family produce a 

 very similar note while sitting on the ground. Referring to the observation 

 recorded under Arquatclla coucsi, I here only remark that the sound was so 

 similar as to leave no doubt whatever in my mind that it had a similar origin 

 in both cases. It may be that a snipe has never been observed bleating on the 

 ground, but the fact that a so nearly allied bird is capable of producing essen- 

 tially the same sound while in that position is an argument in favor of the 

 more natural explanation of the sound originating from the organ which in 

 almost all other instances Is adapted to that purpose. 



John M. Boraston (1903) gives an excellent account of this nuptial 

 flight, as follows: 



Another bird which the buoyant spirits of the breeding season urge into 

 unusual prominence is the common snipe. About the pairing time, at the 

 beginning of April, he may for some weeks be observed on the wing frequently 

 throughout the day. At such times he describes great circles in the air at a 

 considerable height, the rapidly beating wings carrying him round at a high 

 speed. At regular intervals during this great circling flight the wings are laid 

 out flat, the one inside the great circle the bird is describing being tilted up 

 and that outside depressed. At the same moment the tail feathers are opened 

 out so that the sky may be seen between them as between the fingers of an 

 open hand. Immediately the wings and tail are so set, the tips of the former 

 begin to vibrate, the tail feathers remaining rigid, and the bird strikes off 

 at a tangent, curving outward and slipping downward from the normal path 

 of its circular flight. It is this recurring tangential deviation which causes the 

 circle of the snipe's flight to become so vast. During the outward curving, 



