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the end of a 4-foot stick. If now one draws the feather, with its outer side forward, sharply 

 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. 



" If one wishes to hear the humming of both feathers at once, as must be the case from the 

 flying bird, this also can be managed by a simple contrivance. One takes a small stick, and 

 fastens at the side of the smaller end a piece of burnt steel wire in the form of a fork ; one 

 binds to each point a side tail-feather ; one bends the wire so that the feathers receive the same 

 direction which they do in the spreading of the tail as the bird sinks itself in flight ; and then 

 with this apparatus one draws the feathers through the air, as before. 



" Such a sound, but in another tone, is produced when we experiment with the tail-feathers 

 of other kinds of Snipe. But in S. major, capensis, wadfrenata are found four humming-feathers 

 (surr pennor) on each side, which are considerably shorter than in the species we have been 

 speaking of. Scolopax javensis has eight on each side, which are extremely narrow and very 

 stiff. 



" Since in both sexes these feathers have the same form, it is clear that both can produce 

 the humming noise ; and by means of experiment I have convinced myself that it is so. But as 

 the feathers of the hen are generally less than those of the cock bird, the noise also made by 

 them is not so deep as in the other case. Professor Nilsson announces that in the female of 

 the Single Snipe a neighing noise has been already observed. 



" It would be interesting if travelling ornithologists would in future make observations on 

 the foreign species in a state of nature. It ought to be found that these also have a neighing or 

 humming noise, but differing considerably from that of our species. 



" Besides the significance which these tail-feathers have as a kind of musical instrument, 

 their form may give a very weighty character in the determination of species standing very near 

 one another, which have been looked upon as varieties." 



The nest of the Snipe is very simple, being merely a well-rounded depression in the ground, 

 usually amongst the grass or in a bunch of rushes, and lined with grass bents. The eggs are 

 almost always four in number, or in late layings only three ; and these are placed with the points 

 towards the centre. They are pyriform in shape, and are large for the size of the bird, those 

 in my collection measuring from lf^ by 1^ to Iff by 1^% inch. In colour they vary from 

 pale stone greenish to greenish buff, and are spotted and blotched with pale dull purplish grey 

 underlying shell-markings, and rich dark umber-brown overlying surface-blotches and spots ; and 

 all are much more heavily blotched at the larger end. Incubation lasts about sixteen days, the 

 female alone sitting ; when the young are hatched they are soon able to shift for themselves 

 and run about, and are especially clever in hiding should danger threaten them. At first they 

 are covered with soft down all over ; but in about ten days the wing- and tail-feathers begin to 

 sprout, and soon all the body is covered with feathers, the head and neck alone being still in the 

 down dress. The underparts are then much more profusely and boldly barred than in the adult, 

 and the lower abdomen and thighs are still covered with down. The parent birds are said to 

 tend their young with considerable care until they are able to fly, when they leave them 

 altogether to shift for themselves. 



