STOCK-DOVES, WOOD-PIGEONS, SNIPE 55 



then no bleating sound — this whilst quite close. I 

 think — but am not yet quite sure — that they some- 

 times descend in this way uttering the cry. When 

 they bleat, however, there is never the cry at the 

 same time. It is impossible to tell when these birds 

 are going to alight, as they often descend in the 

 manner that they use when alighting, but, when 

 almost down, skim a little just over the ground, and, 

 rising again, continue their flight as before. Yet 

 that they have had it in their mind to alight I feel 

 sure, for they always do so with that particular action." 



Since, then, the snipe has two ways of making his 

 rapid descents through the air, in one of which he 

 quivers his wings and in the other not, and since, 

 on the latter occasion, the bleat is not heard or, if 

 heard, only faintly, it would be natural to suppose 

 that the sound — if not vocal — was produced by the 

 rapidly vibrating feathers of the wing when in swift 

 downward motion rather than by those of the tail, 

 which should not, one would think, be affected by 

 the difference. Also the fact of the vocal note not 

 being uttered at the same time as the bleat might 

 make one think that this, too, was vocal. Such argu- 

 ments, however, would be at best but " poor seemings 

 and thin likelihoods" — the last one, I believe, not 

 supported by what we know (at least I cannot at 

 the moment think of a bird that produces vocal and 

 instrumental music at the same time). If the sound 

 can really be reproduced by waving the modified 

 feathers of the tail, then this is a demonstration.* 



Snipe, as already observed, descend to the ground 



* I have lately observed that when the snipe descends with quivering 

 wings, some outer feathers of the tail on each side are shot out from 



