336 BIRDS OF THE MOOE. 



being on the spot before sunrise, you may see both male 

 and female mount high in a spiral manner, now with con- 

 tinuous beats of the wings, now in short sailings, until 

 more than a hundred yards high, when they whirl round 

 each other with extreme velocity, and dance as it were to 

 their own music ; for at this juncture, and during the 

 space of four or five minutes, you hear rolling notes 

 mingled together, each more or less distinct, perhaps, 

 according to the state of the atmosphere. The sounds 

 produced are extremely pleasing, though they fall faintly 

 on the ear. I know not how to describe them ; but I am 

 well assured that they are not produced simply by the 

 beatings of their wings, as at this time the wings are not 

 flapped, but are used in sailing swiftly in a circle, not 

 many feet in diameter. A person might cause a sound 

 somewhat similar, by blowing rapidly and alternately 

 from one end to another across a set of small pipes con- 

 sisting of two or three modulations. This performance 

 is kept up till incubation terminates ; but I have never 

 observed it at any other period." In this respect the 

 Snipe differs from the Woodcock, whose nocturnal flights 

 I have not witnessed except in April and perhaps the 

 early part of May. The time occupied by the "Woodcock 

 in the air is never more, I am confident, than fifteen sec- 

 onds, and the notes uttered by him while poised at the 

 summit of his ascent sound exactly like chip, chip, chip, 

 chip, chip, chip, about as rapidly as we might utter them 

 in a loud whisper. 



THE VIRGINIA RAIL. 



The shyness and timidity of the Virginia Eail, and the 

 quickness of its movements, its peculiar graceful atti- 

 tudes, and the rare occasions on which we can obtain 

 sight of one, combine to render this bird highly interest- 



