38 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



much mistaken that the noise a snipe makes when 

 drumming or booming is made with his wings. 



"In the same letter Mr. Austen writes : 'All the 

 sound that I have ever heard in the daytime has been 

 their scaipe, except that on August n, 1885, when 

 shooting on the marsh, I heard about and around me 

 who, who, who, only not in very loud tones, and for 

 quite a while was puzzled, until I found running about 

 me at my feet* three tiny young snipe, which must have 

 been a very late, or, possibly second, brood/ If Mr. 

 Austen will go out where: these snipe breed, during the 

 mating season that is, with us, in the month of May 

 he will find that snipe sing, twitter and call. During 

 this season, snipe call one another pete, pete, pete. The 

 cock bird springs into the air, flying twenty or thirty 

 yards before lighting again, with his tail and head up, 

 singing, and twittering much like a bobolink. One 

 could hardly think that these tame, foolish birds were 

 the wild, swift-flying, hard-to-hit birds of the previous 

 month. 



"The snipe and woodcock both drum with their 

 wings. Woodcock drum about dusk, letting themselves 

 down from an elevated position plump on to the ground, 

 with wings set edgewise. Snipe generally drum on 

 dark and dull days, letting themselves down from a 

 high position with wings set edgewise, fifty or a hun- 

 dred feet, immediately soaring up again to circle around 

 as before. This they repeat for hours together. Years 

 ago, when snipe were plentiful in the Holland marshes, 

 a few miles from here, I have seen upon a dull day 



