270 ON SURREY -HILLS. 



in an hour's walk of a thriving town ; and there 

 dozens of snipe could be heard humming and bleating 

 all the day long, during the nesting season. 



The wholesale robbery of birds' nests for money, 

 like many other pernicious practices of recent growth, 

 was quite unknown amongst us then. A man, too 

 fond a parent, will, nowadays, buy for his son a full 

 collection of British birds' eggs, with the notion that 

 it will give the boy a taste for natural history. I 

 knew such a case^ but it was not a success ; you may 

 give a boy eggs, but not capacity. 



By the way, the cause or nature of that humming 

 sound made by the snipe in his descent has been 

 discussed by the ablest of our modern naturalists. 

 They have, however, failed to come to any satis- 

 factory conclusion about it. The wing and tail 

 feathers of a snipe are on the table before me as I 

 write ; and after various experiments with them I 

 have my own opinion on this matter, which, however, 

 I do not venture to give, lest I be thought presump- 

 tuous. One point is certain, the sound does not 

 proceed from the mouth of the bird. When peewits 

 have struck down at me whilst I have been walking 

 amongst their eggs and young, it has been evident 



