COMMON SNIPE 
269 
found here in winter return to Northern Europe 
to breed ; but a number still nest in many marshy 
patches of ground throughout the kingdom, though 
most frequently in the former Fen Country, and 
the wilder moorlands of the north and west. The 
strange " drumming " or " bleating " of the Snipe 
is produced by it only at the breeding-season, and 
may sometimes be heard from the middle of 
February onwards. The bird swoops and hovers 
at a considerable height in the air, and the noise is 
always produced at the moment when it suddenly 
plunges downward with rapidly-beating wings, and 
ceases " when it begins to rise again. It is still not 
absolutely certain that it may not be produced by 
the bird's vocal organs, but most naturalists are 
now agreed that it is probably caused by the rapid 
beating of the stiff wing quills. The sound is 
possibly increased by the outspread feathers of the 
tail acting as a kind of drum or sounding-board ; 
it is difficult to conceive that a noise of such loud- 
ness could be produced by the mere beating of the 
Snipe's wings, without some resonator to give body 
to the sound, on the principle of the violin or 
banjo. A noise of the same kind is produced by 
the Ruffed Grouse of North America ; this bird 
produces it while standing on a log, or on the 
ground, and a naturalist who has kept it for the 
purpose of observation has described it as rapidly 
