GEEAT SNIPE 99 



been a great diminution of the breeding stock of late years. Jutland, 

 which was at one time a well-known breeding place, has long been 

 entirely deserted, and it is necessary to visit the morasses of Scan- 

 dinavia and Esthonia or Finland and Russia before one can make 

 the acquaintance of this species in any numbers on its nesting ground. 

 Unlike the common and jack snipe, there are no aerial evolutions to 

 call attention to the display, but the whole is conducted on the 

 ground between sunset and sunrise ; and as the notes of the birds are 

 not loud, it may well be imagined that it may readily be overlooked. 

 The number of birds which attend at the " Spil," as it is called in 

 Norway, or "Tok" (Russian), varies from eight to a dozen pairs 

 to twenty or more in districts where the birds are comparatively 

 common. Here late in May the males may be heard uttering low 

 warbling notes, producing also sounds which have been compared to 

 those made by running the nail along the teeth of a comb, and snap- 

 ping their bills together, evidently in defiance. The display consists 

 in expanding the tail like a fan and turning it over toward the back, 

 the white outer feathers standing out conspicuously, with drooping 

 wings and depressed and retracted head. In this attitude they per- 

 form a kind of dance, slowly at first, but becoming more and more 

 rapid, and generally culminating in a series of fights between the 

 rivals. • 



R. Collett, who furnished a long and detailed description of the 

 procedure at one of these "leks" to Dresser (1871), is of opinion 

 that the fighting is not of a serious character and consists chiefly of 

 feeble slashes with the wings, but the Russian naturalist Alpheraky, 

 a translation of whose interesting paper on the subject appeared in 

 the Field for 1906 (p. 1075) with an illustration of the display, 

 describes the ground as often strewn with feathers after these 

 encounters. In the more northern latitudes there is of course little 

 darkness, but there is a consensus of opinion that the display dies 

 down about midnight and commences again as it becomes lighter. 

 Alpheraky ascribes this to the arrival of the females on the scene. 

 Clear and bright nights are most favorable for this performance, 

 which seems to have some points of resemblance to that of the rutf 

 and some to that of the black grouse {Lyrurus tetrix), but a series of 

 observations are required before we can reconcile the discrepancies 

 and fill up the gaps in the descriptions. According to Collett there 

 is a period in the display when the bird is in a kind of ecstasy and 

 produces a series of varied notes beginning with a whistle or two, 

 followed by a snapping noise with five or six notes in rapid succes- 

 sion, then a hissing sound, followed by a rolling sbirrrr, which 

 becomes deeper as uttered. A number of birds displaying at the 

 same time produces a low continuous chorus of varied sounds. This 



