OF SELBORNE. 119 



When you say l that in breeding time the cock snipes 

 make a bleating noise,, and I a drumming (perhaps I should 

 have rather said a humming), I suspect v:e mean the same 

 thing. However, while they are playing about on the 

 wing, they certainly make a loud piping with their mouths ; 

 but whether that bleating or humming is ventriloquous, or 

 proceeds from the motion of their wings, I cannot say ; but 

 this I know, that when this noise happens, the bird is 

 always descending, and his wings are violently agitated. 2 



Soon after the lapwings have done breeding, they con- 

 gregate, and, leaving the moors and marshes, betake them- 

 selves to downs and sheep-walks. 



Two years ago last spring the little auk was found alive 

 and unhurt, but fluttering and unable to rise, in a lane a 

 few miles from Alresford, where there is a great lake ; it 

 was kept awhile, but died. 3 



I saw young teals taken alive in the ponds of Wolmer 



1 " British Zoology," vol. ii. p. 358. 



2 Reference has already been made to this curious sound, and to the 

 mode in which it is supposed to be produced. See antea, p. 35, note 4. 



The Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert, in a note to the above passage, has 

 the following pertinent remarks : "I have observed the drumming of 

 snipes in bright days at the beginning of April, and 1 could very clearly 

 discern the manner in which the sound is produced. After rising high, 

 and crying peet, peet, peet, which is the snipe's vernal note, it lets itself 

 drop obliquely through the air, keeping the wings motionless, but 

 turning by some muscular contraction each individual quill sideways in 

 the same manner that the bars of a Venetian blind are turned to admit 

 more light, and having descended to the customary point, it readjusts 

 its feathers, and rises again obliquely without sound. They will 

 continue for hours together amusing themselves in this manner upon a 

 mild day, and when they are in this mood, the sportsman has very little 

 chance of getting near them. The cushat has a sportive movement a 

 little similar, in the summer time, in the narrow wooded valleys amongst 

 the hills ; it is less observed in flat countries. It descends obliquely 

 without any motion of the wings, and when it has dived to the usual 

 point of descent, flaps its wings with a loud noise, and towers again 

 obliquely to the other side of the valley." 



The rook, the peewit, and the black-headed gull all produce at times 

 a loud humming sound with the wings. ED. 



a Although the little auk is a sea-bird, many instances have been 

 recorded of its having been found inland during or after stormy 

 weather. ED. 



