SNIPES. 65 



it is all confusion ; there is no distinction of genus, 

 species, or sex. 



In breeding time, snipes play over the moors, 

 piping and humming ; they always hum as they are 

 descending. Is not their hum ventriloquous, like that 

 of the turkey ? Some suspect that it is made by their 

 wings. 



This morning I saw the golden- crowned wren, 



hammer at the circle, where it is rooted in the wood, with 

 his pick-axe of a beak, evidently with a design to enlarge the 

 orifice. His lahour was incessant, and he ate as largely as 

 he worked ; and, I fear, it was the united effects of both that 

 killed him. His hammering was peculiarly laborious ; for he 

 did not peck as other birds do, but, grasping his hold with his 

 immense feet, he turned upon them as upon a pivot, and 

 struck with the whole weight of his body ; thus assuming 

 the appearance, with his entire form, of the head of a ham- 

 mer ; or, as I have sometimes seen birds, in mechanical clocks, 

 made to strike the hour by swinging on a wheel. We were 

 in hopes that when the sun went down, he would cease from 

 his labours and rest ; but no ; at the interval of every ten 

 minutes, up to nine or ten in the night, he resumed his 

 knocking, and strongly reminded us of the coffin-maker's 

 nightly and dreary occupation. It was said by one of us, * he 

 is nailing his own coffin ;' and so it proved. An awful 

 fluttering in the cage, now covered with a handkerchief, 

 announced that something was wrong: and we found him at 

 the bottom of his prison, with his feathers ruffled and nearly 

 all turned back. He was taken out, and for some time he 

 lingered away in convulsions, and occasional brightenings up. 

 At length he drew his last gasp : and will it be believed, 

 that tears were shed on his demise ? The fact is, that the 

 apparent intelligence of his character, the speculation in his 

 eye, the assiduity of his labour, and his most extraordinary 

 fearlessness and familiarity, though coupled with fierceness, 

 gave us a consideration for him that may appear ridiculous to 

 those who have never so nearly observed the ways of an animal 

 as to feel interested in its fate. With us it was different." 

 W. J. 



