318 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



in another tone, is produced when we experiment with 

 the tail feathers of other kinds of snipe. But in Scolopax 

 major, 8. capensis, and S. frenata are found four hum- 

 ming feathers on each side, which are considerably 

 shorter than in the species I have been speaking of, 

 Scolopax javensis, has eight feathers on each side, which 

 are extremely narrow and very stiff. Since in both 

 sexes these feathers have the same form, it is clear that 

 both can produce the humming noise; by means of 

 experiment I have convinced myself that it is so."* The 

 late Mr. John Wolley, an undoubted authority, saw 

 this experiment repeatedly performed, and was perfectly 

 satisfied that this mode of explaining the drumming 

 sound was the correct one, as indeed any one may be 

 who makes trial for himself of Mr. Meves's experiment. 

 In support, also, of Mr. Meves's assertion that the act 

 of drumming is common to both sexes, Mr. Harting 

 informs us that a pair of snipes flushed from their nest, 

 " continued to fly round in circles making this peculiar 

 noise for nearly half an hour." Both birds were heard 

 to " drum " distinctly and separately, and thus we may 

 account for more being heard towards evening than 

 during the day, as the hen birds would then leave their 

 nests for awhile, and join with their mates in the same 

 sportive flight. 



As a rule the first flights of snipes from the north 

 of Europe arrive about the middle or end of August, 

 for I imagine that those mentioned by Mr. Lubbock as 

 appearing at the end of July, were bred much nearer 

 home. In the early part of the season they are fre- 

 quently to be found scattered over the cultivated lands, f 



* " Proceedings of the Zoological Society," 1858, p. 199 et seq. 

 Extract printed also in " Zoologist " for 1858 (p. 6244.) 



f Mr. Cordeaux, speaking of the earlier arrivals of snipes in 

 North Lincolnshire ("Zoologist," 1868, p. 1030), remarks, "We 



