234 DRUMMING. 



from neither the one nor the other, hut is caused hy the 

 air forcing itself, during the bird's rapid descent, through 

 the quill feathers of its outspread tail. 



The neighing kind of noise in question made by the 

 Common Snipe during the breeding season has caused it 

 in Germany to be called the Himmelsgeiss, or heaven's 

 goat ; in Norway, the Skuddefoll, or horse of the mist ; 

 and in parts of Sweden, the Ilorsgok, or horse cuckoo ; 

 and many believe to this day that at one period it was a 

 veritable steed. " Once on a time," so runs the legend, " a 

 peasant had a horse, which for several days together was 

 led by a servant to a distant pasture entirely destitute of 

 water, without the animal having been previously allowed 

 to drink. One fine afternoon both master and man pro- 

 ceeded to the field, which was well fenced, for the purpose 

 of fetching home the horse ; but on arriving there they 

 found, to their great surprise, that he had vanished alto- 

 gether. Whilst pondering on the matter, they, to their 

 still greater wonderment, heard a neighing overhead, and 

 the next instant saw the lost steed quietly drinking from 

 a spring in an adjoining pasture. They hastened to secure 

 the animal; but as soon as he had drunk his fill, and 

 under their very eyes, he was transformed into a Snipe, 

 and forthwith flew up in the air, where lie was after- 

 wards heard neighing as long as daylight lasted." 



The Common Snipe, like the Solitary Snipe, breeds 

 both in the lowlands and in the mountains; at times, 

 indeed, very high up on the fjalls. The female makes a 

 very inartificial nest on marshy ground, on or near to 

 a tussock. Her eggs, usually four in number, greatly 

 resemble, in form and colour, those of the S. major, but 

 are somewhat smaller. " The young Snipe," Sir Humphry 

 Davy tells us, "soon become of an enormous size, bein^ 

 larger before they can fly than their parents. The old 

 birds arc exceedingly attached to their offspring, and if 



