54 BIRD WATCHING 



to earth — that the sound strikes the ear. A second 

 bird flies, to my surprise and interest, quite differently. 

 After scudding about for some little time in a devious 

 side-to-side pathway, less up and down, as it seems 

 to me, than the other, it suddenly tilts itself side- 

 ways, or almost sideways — one wing pointing sky- 

 wards, the other earthwards — and makes a rapid 

 swoop down, with the wings not beating. I watch 

 it doing this time after time, both with the naked 

 eye and through the glasses, and each time that the 

 swoop is made no bleating or other sound accom- 

 panies it : the flight is noiseless, like that of an 

 ordinary bird. Two other snipes are now flying 

 about in this latter way and chasing each other. 

 At first — and this included a great many sweeps 

 down — I heard no sound. Afterwards I thought I 

 heard it faintly sometimes, but could not be sure 

 that it was not made by another bird — a frequent 

 difficulty in watching snipe." Again, "A snipe is 

 standing alone 'in the melancholy marshes,' quite 

 still, and uttering the creaky, sea-sawey note. I can 

 see the two long mandibles of the beak dividing 

 slightly and again closing. The note is now thin 

 and subdued, but, the bird taking flight suddenly, it 

 becomes much accentuated. It joins two other birds 

 in the air, and all three now sport and pursue each 

 other about, constantly uttering this cry, but bleating 

 only occasionally. I am lying flat on the ground, 

 and they often fly close about and over me, the light, 

 too, being good, it being all before 5.40, and not 

 much after 5, perhaps, when it commenced (this was 

 April 4th). I note that they often descend through 

 the air without vibrating the wings, and there is 



