IN PAIRING TIME 153 



Spinozist to find in it a full and free expression of 

 that Prime Substance which has in it the form and 

 fashioning of all life ; though there are more Peter 

 Blynings in Nature than some of us wot of. To me 

 a Snipe, even on the ground, is a beautiful creature 

 in its rounded, compact form ; its attentive, almost 

 contemplative posings ; its long, specialized bill ; its 

 bold and exquisitely variegated markings ; its free 

 gait and sagacious eye. I cannot conceive it as 

 being other, much less better than it is. 



But, let the bird rise if you will take the measure 

 of the Culinary Critic's judgement upon its graceless- 

 ness and grotesqueness. Springing up from the 

 marsh ground where he feeds, he mounts rapidly 

 aloft until, at a commanding height, he sets himself 

 to beat round in a great circle in strong swift flight. 

 At intervals during this circling flight he swerves 

 aside tangentially, but on a slightly descending, out- 

 ward-curving tangent. The words " inclined plane " 

 having been used by one writer to indicate the 

 direction of this subordinate movement, have become 

 almost sacrosanct by unobservant repetition. The 

 distinction is, perhaps, not worth labouring ; but it is 

 worth observing. During this tangential flight the 

 so-called humming of the Snipe is heard. Whilst it 

 is being produced, the feathers of the tail are always 

 opened out and fixed, and the wings are set quivering 

 in a manner never observed unless attended 

 by the humming. By some it is held still 

 to be a matter for debate whether the hum- 

 ming is vocally produced or is due to the 

 quivering action of the wings, or, again, to the 

 passage of air through the rigidly set tail-feathers. 



