THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLOX 567 



from the ground, the most perfect imitation of the " drumming " 

 was produced, continuing till the arrow pierced the sod." 



Before leaving the topic of drumming or bleating, part of a very 

 interesting article by Mr. Boyes may be quoted from the " Field " 

 of July 1898. He writes : " I am not aware whether any naturalist 

 has stated that the hen bird drums as well as the male, but I think 

 I can settle this point in the affirmative, for one day I visited a very 

 small sti'ip of bog, and almost immediately rose the cock bird which 

 commenced to drum alone and around me in a short time. I 

 flushed the hen off her nest of three eggs and as she left it she 

 dropped the fourth egg, which broke in its fall and the bird, con- 

 tinuing its flight, struck itself against some posts and rails and fell 

 stunned to the ground, but soon recovered and flew away. I 

 marked it, and afterwards went and put it up. All this time the 

 male was drumming overhead and no other snipes were in the 

 neighbourhood. The female now joined in the drumming and the 

 two were drumming for some time, and then they both alighted on 

 the tops of posts, and allowed me to walk quite near them nodding 

 their heads at me all the while." 



The reader will note the curious fact of the snipe sitting 

 on the posts, but, though here in India the idea of the snipe 

 perching seems curiously improbable, it is a well known fact 

 that in their breeding range and when breeding they frequently 

 do so. 



The food of the Fantail Snipe consists of worms of all or any 

 kind, insects, more especially water-insects, tiny shellfish, land 

 shells, larvas of dragon flies, caddis flies, etc. Digestion in snipes 

 seems to be exceedingly rapid and often, even in very fat birds, 

 the stomach will be found to contain only liquid, a fact which 

 very probably gave rise to the belief, at one time so common, 

 that snipe lived on microscopic insects and some nutriment they 

 derived from suction of the mud itself. 



All snipes possess more or less sensitive beaks furnished with 

 nerves and also with muscles, which enable them to open the 

 terminal halves of their bills when inserted in mud. Both nerves 

 and muscles are more highly developed in the Fantail than in any 

 other snipe (6r. major ?) and accordingly, as we should expect, 



