IN PAIRING TIME 149 



strap. It reminds one also of that creaking sound 

 not the humming one made by the Lapwing as it 

 dashes by in executing its well-known excited flight in 

 the pairing season. Still breast to the ground, the 

 bird elaborates the antic by half-opening its wings, 

 depressing the tail feathers and, throwing them out 

 of tension, rustles them loosely in the air. Having 

 finished his antics on the ground he transfers himself 

 to the air. " Co-u-wkee ! wkee-wkee / co-u-wkee ! " 

 he cries, dashing along-field with creak and hum, the 

 wings tilted alternately to right and left in his 

 rolling fiight. Suddenly, as if arrested by the 

 advance of some great billow of air, he sweeps up 

 sharply to its crest ; then, wavering a moment, 

 topples headlong into the trough beyond. If he can 

 lure his soberer mate up into the air he will lay aside 

 his roughness and, flapping over and about her, 

 touch wings, and cry his glad wild cry. 



It would be easy to extend this account by the 

 inclusion of descriptions of such love-antics as those 

 of the Ruff, Great Bustard, &c., which probably 

 have been witnessed by fewer persons than have 

 attempted their description; but the object of this 

 chapter is to furnish first-hand accounts of observa- 

 tions of some of the birds easily to be encountered 

 by those whose interest in the subject is not 

 necessarily limited by the fewness of their oppor- 

 tunities for observation, but whose opportunities are 

 rare enough to make them desire to use them for 

 some practicable purpose. 



One such bird, sufficiently irrepressible in the 

 pairing season to catch the eye of even the casual 

 observer, is the Common Snipe. In his antics he is 



