SNIPE 885 
it repeats many times. A few seconds, more or less according to 
distance, after each of these headlong descents a mysterious sound 
strikes his ear—compared by some to drumming and by others to 
the bleating of a sheep or goat,! which sound evidently comes 
from the bird as it shoots downwards, and then only ; but how the 
sound is made is a question on which many persons are still unde- 
cided. There are those who maintain that it proceeds from the 
throat, while some declare it is produced by the wings, which 
sharp-sighted observers say they can see in tremulous motion. 
Others, again, assert that it is caused by the vibration of the webs 
of the outer rectrices, and these last have in support of their 
opinion the fact that a similar sound may be made by affixing those 
feathers to the end of a rod and drawing them rapidly downwards 
in the same position as they occupy in the bird’s tail while it is 
performing the feat.2 But, however it be produced, the air will 
also ring with loud notes that have beén syllabled tinker, tinker, 
tinker, while other notes in a different key, something like djepp, 
djepp, djepp rapidly uttered, may be heard as if in response. ‘The 
nest is always on the ground and is a rather deep hollow wrought 
in a tuft of herbage, and lined with dry grass-leaves. The eggs 
are four in number, of a dark olive colour, blotched and spotted 
with rich brown. The young when freshly hatched are beautifully 
clothed in down of a dark maroon, variegated with black, white 
and buff. 
The Double or Solitary Snipe of English sportsmen, S. major, a 
larger species, also inhabits northern Europe and may be readily re- 
cognized by the white bars on its wings and by its 16 or occasionally 
18 rectrices. It has also a very different behaviour. When flushed 
it rises without alarm-cry, and flies heavily. In the breeding- 
season much of its love-performance is exhibited on the ground, and 
the sounds to which it gives rise are of another character; but the 
exact way in which its ‘‘ drumming” is effected has not been ascer- 
tained. Its gesticulations at this time have been well described by 
. Prof. Collett in a communication to Mr. Dresser’s birds of Europe 
(vii. pp. 635-637). It visits Great Britain every year at the close 
of summer, but in very small numbers, and is almost always seen 
singly—not uncommonly in places where no one could expect to 
find a Snipe. 
1 Hence in many languages the Snipe is known by names signifying ‘‘ Flying 
Goat,” ‘‘Heaven’s Ram,” as in Scotland by ‘‘ Heather-bleater.” One may 
almost suspect that the aiyoxépados of the ancients was really this bird, though 
the applicability of the name would be unknown to any one unacquainted with 
its breeding habits. 
2 Of. Meves, Gifvers. K. Vet.-Akad. Férh. 1856, pp. 275-277 (transl. Nawman- 
nia, 1858, pp. 116, 117), and Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, p. 202, with Wolley’s 
remarks thereon, and Zool. Garten, 1876, pp. 204-208. 
