186 THE 8NIPB. 



This note is probably produced by an undulatory motioi 

 of air in the throat, while in the act of whirling flight; and 

 appears most distinct as the Snipe descends towards the 

 ground. However produced, the sound and its originators 

 are commonly so concealed by the fast closing shades of 

 night, and the elevation from whence it issues in cloudy 

 weather, thab the whole seems shrouded in mystery. 



My aged maternal parent (says Mr. Nuttall) remembered, 

 and could imitate with exactness this low wailing murmur, 

 which she had for so many years heard over the marshes of 

 my native Ribble, in the fine evenings of spring, when all 

 nature seemed ready to do homage for the bounties of the 

 season ; and yet at the age of seventy, the riddle had not 

 been expounded with satisfaction. 



Over the wide marshes of Fresh Pond, about the middle 

 of April, my attention was called to the same invisible 

 voice, which issued from the floating clouds of a dark 

 evening; the author was here called the Alewife Bird, 

 from its arrival with the shoals of that fish in the neigh- 

 bouring lake. 



From the elevation at which the sound issued, probably, 

 i< appeared less loud and distinct than that which I have 

 since heard from the English Snipe. I imagined then, 

 that the noise was made by the quick and undulatory fan- 

 ning of the wings, but this would not produce the shrillnesa 

 of tone by which it is characterized, as any one may satisfy 

 himself by hearkening to the very different low hma 



