318 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
in another tone, is produced when we experiment with 
the tail feathers of other kinds of snipe. But in Scolopax 
major, S. capensis, and S. frenata are found fowr hum- 
ming feathers on each side, which are considerably 
shorter than in the species I have been speaking of, 
Scolopax javensis, has eight feathers on each side, which 
are extremely narrow and very stiff. Since in both 
sexes these feathers have the same form, it is clear that 
both can produce the humming noise; by means of 
experiment I have convinced myself that it is so.”’* The 
late Mr. John Wolley, an undoubted authority, saw 
this experiment repeatedly performed, and was perfectly 
satisfied that this mode of explaining the drumming 
sound was the correct one, as indeed any one may be 
who makes trial for himself of Mr. Meves’s experiment. 
In support, also, of Mr. Meves’s assertion that the act 
of drumming is common to both sexes, Mr. Harting 
informs us that a pair of snipes flushed from their nest, 
“continued to fly round in circles making this peculiar 
noise for nearly half an hour.” Both birds were heard 
to “drum”’ distinctly and separately, and thus we may 
account for more being heard towards evening than 
during the day, as the hen birds would then leave their 
nests for awhile, and join with their mates in the same 
sportive flight. 
As a rule the first flights of snipes from the north 
of Europe arrive about the middle or end of August, 
for I imagine that those mentioned by Mr. Lubbock as 
appearing at the end of July, were bred much nearer 
home. In the early part of the season they are fre- 
quently to be found scattered over the cultivated lands,+ 
* “Proceedings of the Zoological Society,” 1858, p. 199 et seq. 
Extract printed also in “ Zoologist ” for 1858 (p. 6244.) 
+ Mr. Cordeaux, speaking of the earlier arrivals of snipes in 
North Lincolnshire (“ Zoologist,” 1868, p. 1030), remarks, “ We 
