204 WILD BIRDS 



a degree, the screw of flight is at work. But not so 

 in these feats of the black-headed gulls riding high 

 through the storm. Here it appears to be all a 

 matter of inclined plane and momentum. 



THE SNIPE'S DRUM 



Is this figure of eight cut or unravelled in the 

 curious sidewise action of a snipe during its drumming 

 or bleating exercises ? This point is raised by a letter 

 I had from Mr. Malan. He tells me of some letters 

 lately about the drumming of the snipe. According 

 to one writer the bird has fourteen tail feathers, 

 of which the outer pair, spread at right angles, give 

 rise to the sound made in its oblique descent by the 

 quick vibration of the inner webs. Further : "Mr. 

 T. H. Bahr, in a paper published June 12, 1907, 

 gives an interesting experiment. Pierce the shaft 

 of each outer tail feather of a snipe with a pin, and 

 insert the pins on each side of a small cork, so that 

 the outer web of each feather (the narrow edge) 

 faces the same way. Fasten the cork to one end 

 of a stick six inches long, and fasten some string to 

 the other end of the stick. Whirl it round your 

 head. The drumming sound is at once set up." 

 This device is new to me, but I know a similar 

 device the ' bull-roarer * of Australia, just a flat 

 bit of wood, which, whirled on a string, works in the 

 same way. It is the inexorable figure of eight in 

 both cases." I have not tried the device with the 

 snipe feathers ; but I have with the flat bit of wood 

 and string, and, though it is hard to follow the course 



