30 MR. P. H. BAHR ON THE [Jail. 15, 



invisible ; nevertheless the sound ' top-toppy-top-toppy * is quite 

 clearly heard."" 



I might also mention here that the remarkable sound produced 

 by the W oodS^ndpi-per [Totanus glareola) was found b}^ Mr. Buturlin 

 to be vocal. He shot a score of them " drumming " while sitting 

 on a branch of Ultmos incana, or some local fSalix, on the Kolyma, 

 and has observed them for a long time at the distance of a 

 few yards. The male flies about in wide circles, beating his wings, 

 now floating on outstretched wings uttering as loud but not such 

 hollow notes as the Jack Snipe. 



I can only say at present that, in view of the failure to produce 

 the drumming of the Jack Snipe artificially, I suspect there must 

 be some other mechanism by which the sound is produced. 



Gallinago major : " The Great Snipe '" (text-fig. 8, A). — This 

 species has 1 6 tail-feathers, of which the outer four are white. They 

 are somewhat shorter than the feathers from the centre of the tail, 

 which are similar in all species of Gallinago. The feathers produce 

 no sound on experiment. The rami are soft, like those of G. gal- 

 limola, and can easily be separated. The outer web is composed of 

 rami provided, as in the case of G. gallinula, with rows of distal 

 and proximal radii, of which many are well developed. In the 

 inner web the distal row is one-third longer than the proximal, 

 and is provided with 4 feeble hamuli. The rami are inserted into 

 the shaft at an obtuse angle. 



Its breeding-habits have been described by Prof. Collett, of 

 Chi'istiania, in Dresser's ' Birds of Eiu'ope,' vol. vii. p. 635 : — 

 " The Double Snipe is chiefly a nocturnal bird. Not only does it 

 migrate at night, but it is in motion almost solely after twilight, 

 when its peculiar ' spil ' or drumming takes place ; and it also 

 searches after food chiefly during this time of the evening. . . . 

 It has a so-called ' Leg ' or ' Spil,' like some of the Grouse tribe, a 

 sort of meeting-place, where they collect to ' drum ' and often to 

 engage in combat for the possession of the females. ... It does not 

 indulge in aerial evolutions, but remains on the ground. . . . The 

 male bird utters a soft, almost warbling note, which is accompanied 

 by a peculiar snapping sound caused by striking the mandibles 

 together sevei-al times in ciuick succession. If a person approaches 

 one of these drumming-places he can hear at some distance the 

 low note: ' bip bip, bipbip, bipbiperere, biperere'; and when 

 within 100 paces, if the night is still, he begins to hear other 

 peculiar sounds. . . . Whilst producing these notes the bird is in 

 ecstasy and raises and spreads its tail like a fan, the outer tail- 

 feathers showing in the half-darkness like two white patches." 



Here, again, having no experience of the aforementioned habits 

 myself, I call only conjecture that the sound is vocal. 



Now we come to a group of Asiatic species, which bear much 

 resemblance to each other in the structure of their tail-feathers : — 



Gallinago solitaria (text-fig. 9, a). — According to the formula 

 for this species given in Seebohm's ' Geographical Distribution of 



