306 



COMMON SNIPE. 



In the breeding season, however, Snipes may be 

 seen on the wing in the daytime ; they will then rise 

 to a great height, circling round and round as they 

 ascend : on descending they emit a most curious noise, 

 known as "drumming" or "humming". This has 

 been variously compared to the loud buzzing of a bee 

 which has become entangled and cannot escape, to 

 the bleating of a goat, and to the suppressed gobble 



COMMON SNIPE. 



of a turkey. It has long been, and is still, disputed 

 amongst ornithologists, whether this noise is made by 

 the vibration of the wings, by the throat, or by the 

 rapid rush of air through the feathers of the tail, 

 which are spread out in the descent. The following 

 remarks in the Zoologist, 1885, p. 306, go some way 

 to supporting this latter theory : " When walking up 

 the meadows on the 17th June last I heard a Snipe 



