44 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 
“At ten minutes to eight, in the evening, (17th Mar., 1891), 
the air resounded with the strange music of the flying snipe. My 
friend, who has heard this sound scores of times, feels confident that 
it is mechanical in character; ‘drumming,’ in fact. To my ears, 
it seems to be vocal in quality. Whichever it may be, its weird 
sweetness makes it one of the most attractive night or twilight sounds ' 
in nature. * * * For the shy recluse of the swamp to betake 
himself at evening to the heights of the sky, and there, against the 
stars—invisible to all except the keenest eyes—to produce his witch- 
ing serenade, is something unique and captivating to the imagination.” 
Those who have watched and heard them at mid-day tell me 
that they circle about at an altitude of 250 or 300 feet, and make 
the sound mentioned at intervals of from one to two minutes. My 
informants believe the sound to be produced by the bird’s wings. 
On Monday last I could point to the spot whence the sounds pro- 
ceeded, and the birds moved from sixty to seventy feet between the 
giving forth of the sounds. Whether I had disturbed the birds or 
not in their feeding operations Iam unable to say, but the sounds 
continued as long as I remained on the spot—from seven to eight 
minutes. I believe the sound to be produced by the snipe’s voice. 
These birds rarely remain here more than a week or ten days, which 
is at the end of April. 
The first Hepatica flowers were found here on the 8th instant. 
Dragon Flies were seen on the 13th. Five inches of snow fell on 
the morning of the 15th. To-day an icy rain is falling. 
April 20th, 1893. 
V. 
This is a somewhat tardy spring. I can find no Sanguznartas 
that have yet opened their flowers in spots where in twelve or fourteen 
days they will be plentiful. There has been a slight snowfall this morn- 
ing, but it all melted in an hour ortwo. A Robin is diligently setting 
on her nest of eggs in a grape vine in my garden, yet I have neither 
seen nor heard of the arrival of the Swallows. They were seen in 
Burford last year for the first time on Easter Sunday, 17th of April. 
The leaves of the Zrythronium are nearly expanded in the forest 
places. Scilla Siberica and the English Primrose flowers have 
beautified our flower plot for the past two weeks. 
On Easter Sunday (2nd inst.) one of our neighbors’ sons found 
a pair of common garter snakes fulfilling the sexual instinct just out- 
