THE COMMON SNIPE. 243 



is heard when it is descending rapidly.^ There is consider- 

 able difference of opinion amongst ornithologists regarding 

 the origin of the sound, but the greatest weight appears to 

 be attached to the theory that the sound is caused by the 

 vibration of the feathers of the wings during the descent of 

 the bird.2 Mr, Hardy says that people in the Lammermuirs 

 call the bird the " Mire Drum," on account of the peculiar 

 noise which it makes in the air : — 



Oh, how I love the moorland scene of spring 

 Beneath the smile of morning's ruddy glow, 



The whir of heath-cock and the curving wing 

 Of snipe high booming o'er the marshy flow. 



This species has often been found breeding in the 

 neighbourhood of Penmanshiel. A nest discovered there 

 by Mr. Hardy, in a bog, was made of withered sprits 

 {Juncits articulatus) and a few grasses. It had four eggs, 

 and their tips were placed inwards around the centre of 

 the nest.^ It also rears its young occasionally amongst 

 the herbage by the side of Dowlaw Mill Pond, and Colonel 

 Brown has informed me that the nest is frequently found 

 in the moors about Longformacus. 



.... here her house she forms, 



Here warms her fourfold offspring into life. 



Grahame, Birds of Scotland. 



The eggs are yellowish or greenish white, spotted towards 

 the larger end with several shades of brown. 



' The food of the Snipe consists of worms and insects, 

 which it procures by boring in moist or swampy ground 

 with its long bill. 



1 Mr. Hardy in his MS. Notes writes: "1863, April 16<A.— Two days ago at 

 Penmanshiel Moss, Snipe were circling round the moor, now rising aloft, then 

 descending humnung." 



' Yarrell's British Birds, fourth edition, vol. iii. pp. 344, 345. 



3 The nest was found very late in the season, namely, on the 17th of July 1845. 

 —Mr. Hardy's MS. Notes. 



