106 A CATALOGUE OF IHE BIRDS 



The peculiar murmuring or drumming sound produced by the 

 Snipe, during the breeding season, "when disturbed from its nest, 

 and when flying overhead, circling rapidly in the air at this 

 period, attracted, a few years ago, considerable attention, on 

 account of an ingenious paper on the subject by Mr. W. Meves, 

 of Stockholm, published in the ''Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society of London," Part XXYI., 1858, p. 199. In this com- 

 munication it is endeavoured to be demonstrated that this enig- 

 matical sound is produced by the two lateral caudal feathers. 

 Before this time the general opinion was, apparently, that the 

 murmuring or neighing, as it has been called, resulted from the 

 action of the wings, which, while the sound' lasts, are always 

 rapidly vibrating. The lateral tail-feathers are stated, in this 

 communication, to be very peculiarly constructed, the shafts 

 being uncommonly stiff and sabre-shaped, with "the rays of the 

 web strongly bound together and very long, the longest reaching 

 nearly three-fourths of the whole length of the web, these rays 

 lying along or spanning from end to end of the course of the 

 shaft, like the strings of a musical instrument." Such is the 

 description of these supposed sonorous feathers of the Common 

 Snipe, in which it is stated there are two, the outer tail-feather 

 of each side; and it is further remarked, that "If one blows 

 from the outer side upom the broad web of such a feather it 

 comes into vibration, and the sound is heard, which, though 

 fainter, resembles very closely the well-known neighing. But 

 to convince oneself," so continues Mr. Meves, "that it is the 

 first feather which produces the peculiar sound, it is only neces- 

 sary to carefully pluck out such a one, to fasten its shaft with a 

 fine thread to a piece of steel wire, a tenth of an inch in diam- 

 eter, and a foot long, and then to fix this at the end of a four-foot 

 stick. If now one draws the feather, with the outer side forward, 

 through the air, at the same time making some short movements 

 or shakings of the arm, so as to represent the shivering motion 

 of the wings during flight, one produces the neighing sound with 

 the most astonishing exactness." 



Then follows a description of a contrivance to produce the 

 humming of both the feathers at once. And then it is stated 



