MISCELLANEOUS JOTTINGS ON BIRD SONGS. 451 



the Snipe ; yet some individuals of the species, if not Snipe 

 in general, are capable of a performance that well deserves the 

 name of a song. In the south of Yorkshire is a certain small bog 

 where several pairs of Snipe breed annually. In the centre of a 

 field adjoining the bog stands a large dead tree with only its 

 gaunt main branches left ; and it was a customary thing to see a 

 Snipe pitch upon the summit of the topmost limb of this tree, 

 and there give utterance, sometimes for a quarter of an hour at a 

 stretch, to his unique song. This song was loud, vigorous, and 

 sustained, and, though it was quite evidently an elaboration of 

 the ringing cry so often uttered by the Snipe on pitching, it 

 was very considerably modulated. Through the glasses it could 

 be seen that the bill during this performance was held hori- 

 zontally, and that the head was continually turned about from 

 side to side. It was, of course, impossible to determine whether 

 it was always the same bird that was responsible for this song ; 

 but the song was to be heard quite regularly during, at any rate, 

 one breeding season — that of 1898 ; and the writer heard it 

 again, still from the same point in the same dead tree, on the 

 only occasion during the following spring on which he was able 

 to visit the bog. Very possibly this singing of the Snipe is one 

 of its normal accomplishments, but the writer has neither seen 

 any mention of it, nor met with the phenomenon itself in any 

 other locality. 



The fact has been frequently noticed that many birds will 

 occasionally sing on the wing which do not normally do so. This 

 is commonly to be observed in the case of the Blackbird and 

 Mistle-Thrush, and of the Greenfinch, Sedge-Warbler, and 

 Wood-Wren, One thing is always noticeable about these birds 

 when they are singing on the wing, and that is the peculiar mode 

 of their flight. In every one of them there is a very evident pre- 

 occupation of mind ; the wings give a slight and neglected stroke 

 and appear to be unusually widely opened, while the resulting 

 flight is slow and sailing. When the Blackbird, Mistle-Thrush, 

 and Wood-Wren are singing on the wing, they are, as a rule, 

 drifting across from one tree to another in a straight line ; but 

 the flight of the Greenfinch and Sedge-Warbler is undertaken for 

 the special purpose of the song, and it follows an aimless and 

 erratic course through the air. The Wood-Wren will frequently 



