2460 The Zoologist— February, 1871. 



remarkable as a frog's concert. It is noticeable, however, tliat this peculiar 

 action is not altogether confined to the breeding season. Mr. Blofield, of 

 Hoveton, an unquestionable authority on such matters, assures me he once 

 heard a snipe drumming in the depth of winter, and on drawing the 

 attention of his marshman, William Hewitt, to what he then considered a 

 very strange occurrence, the old man assured him that he had remarked the 

 same thing on several occasions, and that he regarded it as a sign of stormy 

 weather ; which in that instance proved correct. I think there can be no 

 doubt that this is a purely ' amatory signal,' but just as some birds sing in 

 autumn or winter, so cock snipe will, no doubt, at other than breeding 

 times."— P. 315. 



This is followed by an explanation of the driimraiug to which 

 I have already referred ; it attributes this phenomenon to the 

 peculiar structure, stiff and sabre-like, of the outer feathers of the 

 tail, which being passed vapidly through the air in the bird's 

 descent produce the sound in question : following this account, 

 with which the readers of the 'Zoologist' are already familiar, 

 Mr. Stevenson enters on the subject of occasional scarcity or 

 abundance of snipes, alternations that have puzzled our best 

 sportsmen almost as much as the mysterious drumming, the 

 exclamation of the. marshman, "Lor, sir! if you'd only been 

 here yesterday the marsh was pretty well all snipe," affording the 

 disappointed sportsman neither clew nor consolation in the absence 

 of all game. The frequent slii fling of their ground has always 

 been inexplicable: "here to-day and gone to-morrow" is a motto 

 which the snipe adopts without any question of its propriety. 



" Snipes, however," saj-s Mr. Stevenson, " without leaving us altogether, 

 appear to be constantly shifting their ground under 'skyey influences,' a 

 sudden flood in the low-lying marshes often driving them in ' wisps ' into 

 the turnip-fields, or occasioning tbera to congregate in unusual numbers on 

 such marshes as may chance to lie higher and dryer than the rest. On the 

 23rd of November, 1853, a ftiir sprinkling of snipes having been reported in 

 that fine district, I was asked to shoot with a friend at Ranworth, but 

 although we walked all the best ground, tbe water had so risen on the 

 previous night that scarcely a bird was to be seen, and up to one o'clock we 

 had only two wild shots. As a last resource it was suggested that we should 

 try some marshes on a higher level at Horning, even though much time 

 would be lost in going so far. As it turned out we were amply paid for our 

 trouble. No sooner had wc landed on one marsh, of no great extent, than 

 the snipes rose on all sides, not in a body, but two or three at a time. If 



