COMMON SNIPE. 345 



paper, translated by the late John Wolley (P. Z. S. 1858, 

 p. 199), stated that a series of experiments showed that the 

 sound was due to the vibration of the stiff webs of the outer 

 tail-feathers, acted upon by the air in the course of the 

 rapid descent of the bird. This explanation was accepted 

 by several ornithologists ; but Mr. John Hancock, whose 

 powers of observation are second to none, having tried the 

 experiments upon which so much stress has been laid, pro- 

 nounces them to be of little real value. His exhaustive 

 arguments are too long to be given, but after pointing out 

 that the Snipe is by no means the only bird which pro- 

 duces this 'drumming,' 'bleating,' or 'neighing' sound, 

 he considers that it results from the action of the wings, 

 and that the tail-feathers are incapable of producing any- 

 thing audible at a distance.* Colonel W. V. Legge (Birds 

 of Ceylon, p. 1219), describes his personal experiences in 

 Wales with the result that in his opinion the wings were 

 the primary cause of the sound, and the tail-feathers, spread 

 like a fan, were the secondary cause. The question is well 

 set forth by Mr. J. E. Harting (Zool. 1881, pp. 121-131), 

 who adheres to the ' wing theory.' 



The Snipe has been recorded as having eggs as early as 

 the 20th of March, but, as a rule, it is not before April that 

 it makes its slight nest, consisting only of a few bits of 

 dead grass or dry herbage, collected in a depression on the 

 ground, and sometimes upon or under the side of a tuft of 

 grass or bunch of rushes. The eggs are usually four in 

 number, of a pale yellowish or greenish-white, the larger 

 end spotted with two or three shades of brown ; these mark- 

 ings are rather elongated, and disposed somewhat obliquely 

 in reference to the long axis of the egg ; the measurements 

 being about 1-6 by 1-1 in. Incubation, undertaken by the 

 female only, lasts rather more than a fortnight, and the young 

 are able to run on emerging from the shell. It would appear 

 that tM'o broods are sometimes reared in the season, for the 

 young in down have been observed in the middle of August. 



The Snipe's alarm note, scape, scape, or chissick, is as well 



* Nat. Hist. Trans. Northumberland and Durh. vi. pp. 106-113. 

 VOL. III. Y Y 



