COMMON SNIPE. 
303 
winter. Now only known as a winter visitor to the Isle of 
Wight. 
Unlike the woodcock, this bird was well known as a 
nesting species to Gilbert White, who wrote that numbers 
bred every summer " in some moory ground " on the verge 
of the parish of Selborne. " It is very amusing," he says, 
" to see the cock bird on wing at that time, and to hear his 
piping and humming notes." ^ 
" When they are playing about on the wing they cer- 
tainly make a loud piping with their mouths, but whether 
that bleating or humming is ventriloquous, or proceeds 
from the motion of their wings, I cannot say ; but this I 
I know, that when the noise happens, the bird is always 
descending, and his wings are violently agitated." 2 
This curious " humming," " bleating," or " drumming," 
as it is variously called, has engaged the attention of many 
naturalists since White's time, and few counties offer better 
opportunities for the study than Hampshire, at least in the 
South of England. 
It is now generally agreed that the sound is produced 
by the wings, the outspread feathers of the tail probably 
contributing in some way to the production. 
It is usually assumed that this performance belongs to 
the breeding season only. But this is a mistake. It may 
be heard throughout the summer months ; indeed, we are 
informed that it has been heard in nearly every month of 
the year. Just as a warm, bright day in winter sets the 
song-birds carolling before their time, so also it may send 
the snipe drumming cheerfully round the horizon of its 
meadows, in anticipation of the spring. 
There is, happily, no need to specify all the breeding 
' Letter x. to Pennant. August, 1767. 
^ Letter xxxix. to Pennant. November, 1773. 
