564 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



the observer, so that the narrow outer web shall cleave to the resist- 

 ance of the air. Thus affixed, they are held out of the window of 

 a train or while riding a bicycle. As the resistance of the air is 

 encountered, the inner web begins to vibrate, slowly at first, but, as 

 the train gains speed, so rapidly that its outline is entirely lost and 

 it becomes blur ; a low humming sound is at first heard which 

 soon reaches the typical pitch of the bleat. When the train has 

 reached the speed of some 20 miles an hour, the whole feather will 

 vibrate on the pin. If the feathers are at all loose on their pins, 

 it is curious to observe how they will always turn round, so that the 

 narrow outer edge encounters the resistance of the air. Further- 

 more, if the feathers be damped, they appear to act better, thus 

 explaining, perhaps, why snipe are found to be liable to bleat in 

 damp weather. I think this simple experiment readily explains 

 away the " adverse cases " of Prof. Altum (' Ornithologisches 

 Central-Matt,' October 1880), already mentioned. 



" That the hens bleat as well as the cocks is now, I suppose, 

 a well-known fact (cf. Von. Preen, ' Naumannia,' 1856, pp. 426, 

 427, and Meves, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1859, p. 200). I have observed 

 it on several occasions myself. In the summer of 1902, I found 

 four newly hatched snipe in a patch inhabited by only a single 

 pair ; while lying concealed in the neighbourhood, I observed 

 repeatedly both old birds drumming above me. From the simi- 

 larity of structure of the tail-feathers in both sexes — a fact which I 

 have ascertained by dissection — one would infer that both sexes 

 drummed. I cannot, however, agree with Meves that "as the 

 feathers of the hen are generally less than those of the cock-bird, 

 the noise also made by them. is not so deep as in the other case." 

 (Op. cit., p. 200). 1 can find no difference either in the length of 

 the feathers or in the intensity of the sound produced by the 

 feathers of either sex. I have received a letter from Mr. S. A. 

 Buturlin in which he says that in 1905 on the Kolyma Delta he 

 frequently observed both sexes of the eastern representative of our 

 species (Gallinago raddei) drumming. 



" Since the two outer feathers are extended bej'ond the other 

 twelve during the descent, as I have described, I sought to find by 

 dissection a mechanisim by which this might be produced. On 



