32
Concord, Mass.
1897.
April
No 7
  Gallinago delicata. - During the first ten days of April
the Great Meadows were, as usual, flooded but after
the10th continued warm, dry weather caused the water
to fall steadily until by the 21st the river was in
most places well within its banks. No doubt there
had been Snipe on the brook meadows of Concord long
before this but the first that I noted was one
that drummed a few times near Ball's Hill on the morning
of the 22nd. During the remainder of the month I
heard them every evening as well as in the early morning
whenever I happened to awake at the right time. In
the evening they began drumming about 15 or 20 minutes
after sunset, keeping it up until the light had faded
out in the west (I did not once hear one after it had
become fairly dark); in the morning I heard them from
4.15 to 4.30 o'clock. They were most numerous on the evenings 
of the 27th and 28th when the meadows seemed to be fairly
alive with them, three or four being usually engaged in
drumming at one time while others were cackling or "scaiping".
As a rule the cackle was seldom heard until near the
close of the drumming period when, for ten or fifteen minutes,
it would come from every part of the meadows. In
quality it is very like the cut-cutta note of Rallus virgin-
ianus and anyone hearing it for the first time would be
nearly sure to conclude that it was the voice of some
species of Rail. It varies somewhat in tone and form
and greatly in duration and rapidity of utterance.
Ordinarily the syllable kep is repeated about 15 or 20
times at the rate of about three keps to the second but
sometimes they are continued without the slightest pause
for several minutes. Again they are sometimes given