306 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE 



This species has from twenty-six to twenty-eight tail feathers! and 

 of these the eight outermost are thus strangely modified. 



The duties of incubation seem to be undertaken mainly, if not 

 entirely, by the female common-snipe ; but the male bears his share 

 in looking after the young. If suddenly surprised while brooding 

 her young, she will leap up in the air, and descending will lie for 

 a moment with extended wings and tail uttering plaintive whining 

 notes, and then will flutter away, as if feigning injury. Having gone 

 to what seems to her a safe distance, she will take wing and often alight 

 on some post, or low bough of a tree, as affording a better lookout from 

 which to watch the intruder, the while she keeps up an incessant 

 " chack-hach, chack-wach, chack-a-a-a-h chack, a-a-a-h" the beak moving 

 during this time like the blades of a pair of scissors. These notes 

 differ conspicuously from the usual " scape " uttered at the moment of 

 flight, and when surprised at other times of the year. This bird does 

 not, like the woodcock, carry its young, nor, indeed, do any of the 

 snipe appear to adopt this method of conveying their young to 

 safer retreats when danger threatens. Perchance this habit arose 

 among the woodcocks as a result of their custom of carrying their 

 young to and from their feeding-grounds when these are remote from 

 the area of the nest. 



And now as to the so-called "solitary" or great-snipe. Unlike 

 its near relative the common-snipe, it does not " drum " in the proper 

 sense of the word. Dresser l tells us that the great-snipe, or " double- 

 snipe," has a "so-called ' ley ' or ' spil ' like some of the Grouse tribe, 

 a sort of meeting-place, where they collect to ' drum,' and often to 

 engage in combat for the possession of the females ... It does not 

 indulge in aerial evolutions, but remains on the ground . . . The male 

 bird utters a soft, almost warbling note, which is accompanied by 

 a peculiar snapping sound caused by striking the mandibles together 

 several times in quick succession. If a person approaches one of 

 these drumming-places, he can hear at some distance the low note ; 



1 Birds of Europe, vol. vii. p. 635. 



