SOME BIRD NOTES 255 



naturally increase the draught of air for these feathers, 

 which, I believe, are the principal factors in causing the sound. 

 You can easily find the feathers, as they are a different shape 

 to the others ; if you kill a wounded snipe, by pressing the 

 breast and back, you can generally see them move out side- 

 ways slightly. Yours faithfully, C. W. A." 



[A sketch of the tail and these particular feathers was 

 inserted in the letter, and on examining a snipe I noticed 

 them as described.] 



Still pursuing the subject, I wrote to an old sportsman 

 living at Oulton Broad, who promptly replied as follows : 



" OULTON BROAD, November 9//fc, 1906. 



" DEAR MR. PATTERSON, 



" In response to your post card, if on a summer's 

 evening you watch a snipe through powerful glasses in mid- 

 air, you will observe him fly upwards, bleating in a natural 

 manner, then suddenly throw himself on his side, draw up 

 his tail to a right-angle, and even more acute than that, and 

 fall rapidly head first towards the earth, beating rapidly with 

 his wings. Hence, in some districts, the action is called 

 bleating, and in others drumming, from his wing motion. 



""The late Mr. Edward Foyser, who was a good naturalist, 

 told me that he had a snipe stuffed with its tail spread out 

 in this position, and that he succeeded, by forcing air rapidly 

 through it (imitating as far as he was able the wind that 

 would come from the action of the snipe's wings), in pro- 

 ducing the drumming sound. ... I have very little doubt 

 that this is the manner in which the sound is produced. 



" Yours truly, W. S. E." 



AVIAN DISCORD 



Small wading birds are peaceably inclined. The struggle 

 for existence leaves little time for disputation on the margin 

 of the retreating or the incoming waves ; and their love of 

 society is, in most of the species, notorious. The ringed 

 plover not only tolerates the company of the dunlin, but 

 himself gratuitously forces his presence into the midst of a 

 busy flock. It is only at the time of nesting that the ringed 

 plover ever resents intrusion from others, but himself is then 

 inclined to seclusiveness. Gulls, more particularly the larger 



