ON THE “ HUMMING” OF THE SNIPE. 127 
inclined downwards the next time it descended, until the course was altered, 
and the bird flew back from west to east, when usually the other wing 
was inclined towards. The instant the bird commenced its descent, the 
‘drumming’ noise was heard, and it continued till it finished off with a 
sort of whiz directly the upward sweep, by which the bird recovered itself, 
was performed. 
‘By closely watching the bird it could be distinctly seen that the 
vibrations falling on the ear coincided ewactly with the beat of the wings, 
which, assisted by the downward rush through the air, were the primary 
cause of the sound. ‘The tail, however, was spread as I have already 
remarked, and to such an extent that it took the form of a fan, the lateral 
feathers being at right angles to the centre; and herein lies the secondary 
cause of the sound. During the drumming beat of the wing, the quills are 
more drawn back than in the ordinary strokes (this can be observed if the 
bird be closely watched), so that the atmospheric wave or air propelled by 
the powerful stroke of the wing is drawn through the rigid, sabre- esbaped 
and opened-out feathers of the taal thus making the peculiar noise.” 
Thus, in the opinion of Capt. Legge, the sound is produced 
by the combined action of wings and tail: he suggests a com- 
promise, in fact, between the adherents of the “wing-theory” 
and “the tail theory,” reminding one of the old story of the 
disputants about the gold and silver shield! 
In the ‘ Ornithologisches Centralblatt’ (1st Oct., 1880), Prof. 
Altum has an article on this subject, in which he relates a curious 
story, for the truth of which he vouches, and which he adduces 
in support of his own view that the tail-feathers alone are instru- 
mental in producing the sound in question. We need not translate 
- the article verbatim, but, for the sake of brevity, will give the 
substance of his remarks. He says :— 
“With regard to my theory of the ‘bleating’ (meckern) of the Snipe,% 
published in 1855, namely, that the expanded tail-feathers cause the sound, 
and which theory was afterwards immaterially modified by my attributing 
the sound to the outer tail-feathers only (for with these, at least, the sound 
can be imitated), I refer to the ‘ Naumannia’ for 1855 (pp. 862, 499). 
“By means of the experiment with a tail-feather on a wire, I had no 
difficulty in bringing foresters hitherto sceptical or altogether averse to the 
theory (I could adduce a goodly list of well-known names) to an unqualified 
* “Bleating” appears to me to be a very inappropriate term, for it 
implies a vocal effort on the part of the bird, which Dr. Altum does not 
suggest. 
