78 INDIAN SPOETING BIRDS 



the present species, one pintail, and two jack-snipe — is described 

 as " a large swamp tract of country covered with about the 

 worst kind of ' punk ' it has ever been my fate to shoot in, 

 a black reeking mud composed entirely of decayed and decaying 

 vegetable matter in which one frequently sank to one's thighs ; 

 growing in this ooze were dense clumps of hoogola reeds inter- 

 spersed with fairly open glades, where birds could feed, and 

 with other patches of thin null jungle in which snipe delight 

 to rest during the day, secure from the too pressing attentions 

 of the numerous hawks that infest these marshes." Snipe also 

 seek cover in order to avoid the hot sun, for they are not birds 

 of the light by choice, and at times even feed by night, besides 

 migrating at that time. Their peculiar alarm-cry on rising 

 — variously rendered as "scape," "psip," or " pench " — is well 

 known, as also the zigzagging in flight during the first few 

 yards of their course. This style of flight is due to alarm, for 

 a snipe can fly straight from the start if it wants to, and does so 

 when going off undisturbed. The straight-away flight is swift, 

 but it is generally agreed that snipe afford easier shots in India 

 than in England, though there is some difference of opinion 

 as to the advisability of firing at once when the birds rise, or 

 letting them get their twistings over before " letting drive " at 

 them; both methods have been practised by excellent shots. 

 Although their usual breeding haunts lie to the north and 

 west of India, common snipe breed regularly in Kashmir, and 

 very occasionally elsewhere with us. Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker 

 took a nest himself and got the old bird as well, in the Santhal 

 Pergunnas, and had another clutch brought him by his native 

 collector. The birds when breeding produce the curious sound 

 known often as '' drumming," though it is better described as 

 " bleating." There has been much discussion as to how it is 

 produced, but the method seems to be now fully ascertained ; 

 the bird rises to a certain height in the air and swoops down- 

 wards, with the tail outspread and its two outer feathers 

 standing away from and in front of the rest. It has been 

 proved experimentally that these two feathers alone, properly 

 manipulated, will produce the " bleat." In the most interesting 

 experiment of all they were fastened to the notch-end of an 



