110 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



of Jlay, and are iliscoutiuued as soon as the fcathei-s on the neck l)cgin to fall out, 

 which ha|)j>ens about six weeks later. Soon after sunrise is the best time to observe 

 them, but I have watched them in Russia and in Holland as late as eleven in the fore- 

 noon. The excitement of the birds is intense ; they stoop with their heads low, and 

 their ruffs expanded, and fly at each other like game-cocks, but, unlike those birds, 

 they tight with the bill and not with the foot. The warts on the side of the face of 

 the ruff only remain <luring the spring, and, doubtless, serve as a jjrotection a<'ainst 

 the sword-thrusts of their adversaries." 



The Seolopacinre are birds of the twilight, and, like all birds of similar li.abits, are 

 structurally adapted to tlieir peculiar manners of life. Tlius, the plumage is soft, and 

 the coloration has that curiously mottled character which we will find in the owls and 

 goat-suckers. The eyes are large .and full, but in order to give them ])lace in the little 

 snijie-liead without diminishing the ears, which also are of great im])ortance to noc- 

 turnal birds, the eyes have been i>ushed so far behind in the skull as to be situated 

 just above the ear-openings. The bill is very long, flexible, and covered with a soft 

 skin, richly supjilied with nerves. The tarsus, like that of the Tringina?, is scutellate 

 both in front and bohiml. The snipes ])roper, including the so-called woodcocks, are 

 cosmopolitan in their distribution, and of migratory habits in cold climates, the many 

 different species being of a bewildering similarity. A curious feature of tliesc birds 

 is, that a number of species present strangely modified tail-feathers, tl>e number of 

 which is often enormously increased over the normal, for instance, GdlUnago stenura, 

 from eastern Asia. This abnormality of the tail-feathers in many forms has been taken 

 as an argumetit in favor of the tlicory that the bleating sound of the common sni]ie 

 {GoUiiHtffo ffallinaffo), is produced by aid of the rectrices. Others have contended 

 tl)at the wing-feathers are the instrument by which it imitates so closely the goat, 

 and bitter discussions h.ave l)een carried on between eminent ornithologists for more 

 than twenty years. Together witli several distinguished observers, I hold that the 

 sound usu.ally emanates from the thro.at, but that its bleating quality is i)roduced by 

 the vibration of tlie wings when the bird descends from its lieight. We quote the 

 following from our own ex])erience: — 



"Very often the snipe would rise so high in the air as to become almost invisible to 

 the unaided eye, but still tlie strange sound rang vigorously down to the observer. 

 Not only this jiower of the sound, but even more so the nature of the tune itself, con- 

 vinced me that it originates from the throat, and not in any w:iy either from the tail 

 or the wing feathers, as suggested by many European writers. It is true that the 

 wings are in a state of very rapid vibration during the oblique descent when the note is 

 uttered, but this circumstance does not testify only in favor of tlie theory of the sound 

 being ])rodueed by the wing, as tlie vibration most conclusively accounts for the (piiv- 

 ering throat-sound. Anybody stretching his arms out as if flying, and moving them 

 rapiilly iil> and down, and simultaneously uttering any sound, is boun<l to 'bleat.'" 



This group includes a small, strongly-defined genus which we designate by its oldest 

 name as Hostratiila, more commonly known as Ji/ii/ttc/iaa. The geograjihical distri- 

 bution is somewhat remark.able, a rej^resentative species being found in each of the 

 following provinces: Africa and Mailagasoar, India and south-eastem -Asia, Australia 

 and southern South America. It will be observed that this peculiar distribution is 

 similar to that of many isolated forms; for instance, the Jac.anidae, Ileliornithidte, 

 Trogonida;, Dendroojgna, Plotus, etc., affording a valuable hint as to the origin and 

 past distribution of these more or less 'aberrant' forms. Rostratula has other peculi- 



