26 MR. p. H. BAHR ON THE [Jan. 15, 



a greater elevation than oiu- species, also that Audubon noticed 

 the fact that both cock and hen bleat. 



William Brewster, in Chapman's ' Handbook of Birds of North 

 America,' writes, pp. 154-155: — "In the springtime, and occa- 

 sionally in autumn also, Wilson's Snipe mounts to a considerable 

 height above his favourite meadows, and darts downward with 

 great velocity, making at each descent a low yet penetrating 

 tremulous sound, which suggests the winnowing of a domestic 

 Pigeon's wings, and if heard at a distance, the bleating of a goat, 

 and which is thought to be produced by the rushing of the air 

 through the wings of the Snipe. This performance may be 

 sometimes witnessed in broad daylight, when the weather is 

 stormy, but ordinarily it is reserved for the morning oi- evening 

 twilight or for moonlight nights, when it is often kept iip for 

 hours in succession." 



Other American species deserve mention here : — 



GalUnago nohilis (text-fig. 8, B) has 16 tail-feathers, of which 

 the outer three are attenuated and the fourth partially so. It 

 inhabits Ecuador and Colombia, and is allied to G. cmstralis, 

 which species I shall treat of later. I can find no reference to the 

 breeding-habits of this species. On experiment the three outer 

 feathers bleat M^ell. As in G. delicata the rami of the outer web 

 possess but rudimentary radii ; those of the inner, however, possess 

 a distal row which is one-thii'd longer than the proximal, and the 

 former is provided with five hamuli which are not well-hooked. 

 The rami are thicker and stiflTer than in the aforementioned species, 

 and I suspect it is more by the vibration of the rami as a whole 

 that the sound is produced, in contradistinction to the vibration of 

 the inner web alone as in G. ccelestis and delicata. The inner web 

 of the eighth pair is but little broader than the outer, but that of 

 the seventh pair is nearly twice as broad, thus resembling the 

 outer tail-feathers of G. delicata. The middle tail-feathers conform 

 to the ordinary type. The sound produced is hard to describe; it is 

 flute-like, but possesses a definite bleating character. 



GaUiiiago frenata. — Another South Amei4can species inhabiting 

 Brazil, believed to be a Neotropical form of G. delicata. This 

 species has 16 tail-feathers, of which the outer four are 

 attenuated, the outermost being one-fifth inch in diameter, the 

 inner being but slightly wider than the outer web. The inner web 

 becomes progressively larger towards the centre of the tail. This 

 species agrees with the foregoing in having the specialised 

 feathers of a lighter colour : all four bleat ; this is similar to that 

 of G. nohilis, but shriller: microscopically they resemble the 

 structure of G. delicata. The distal radii of the inner web are one- 

 thii'd longer than the proximal row and possess five well-curved 

 hamuli. The rami of the outer web are stiff and structureless. 



G. paragtmyce is a subspecies of G. frenata inhabiting Paraguay. 

 It is much larger than the type, and the tail-feathers are 



