308 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE 



to the behaviour of the great-snipe at this critical period than any 

 one else. 



This bird is, he asserts, polygamous, and assembles at certain 

 favourite spots to execute a performance hardly distinguishable from 

 that of the black-grouse, and known among Russian naturalists as the 

 " Tok " (fight). This begins at sunset and lasts till sunrise, the males 

 only participating. They begin with a series of dances which gradu- 

 ally turn into violent fights, severest, apparently, during the darkest 

 hours of the night, since after such encounters the ground is often 

 found strewn with feathers. There is surely, however, some error of 

 observation here, since "during the darkest hours of the night" 

 severe combats would be hardly possible. But be this at it may, the 

 fighting is preceded by display, when the tail is fanned out and turned 

 over towards the back, while the head is commonly drawn down- 

 wards and backwards into the shoulders, and the wings half expanded 

 and drooped. Thus posed the birds prance about, turning half 

 round to right, then to left, slowly at first, then quicker and quicker, 

 till, moved to frenzy, they begin to jump wildly and perform other 

 ridiculous antics. Then comes the fighting. At about midnight the 

 females, who till now have remained screened by the long grass, 

 appear. The males stop fighting and again display, then renew the 

 fighting till dawn, when the females fly off each with a male in 

 attendance. Remaining paired for the day, they assemble again at 

 dusk for a similar performance. At sunset the females set up a 

 croaking noise like frogs round the tourney-ground to attract the 

 males, who then assemble, and assuming the "toking" attitude, 

 produce extraordinary sounds like the noise produced by drawing 

 the nail along the teeth of a comb, which in turn is followed by a 

 hollow sound made by the wings. 



There are points in this account which challenge criticism, but it 

 is, nevertheless, the most complete that has yet been given. 



The jack-snipe, like the double-snipe, does not " drum " after the 

 fashion of the common-snipe and its congeners, nevertheless it pro- 



