48G 
MR. n. STRVENSON ON THE COMMON SNIPE. 
had not considered them to be strictly within the operation of the 
Act. 
Emboldened probably by this decision, the river fishermen of 
Lynn have recently petitioned for an extension of the time when 
it shall be legal to take Smelts, from the 31st March as at present 
fixed, to the 30th April, a request very wisely declined by 
the Board of Conservators. It appears desirable that the term 
Fresh-water Fish, as used in the Act of 1877, should first be 
clearly defined, and then that the salutary bye-laws framed 
by the Conservators should be strictly enforced in the river Ouse 
as elsewhere. 
XL 
OX THE A^OCAL AXD OTHER SOUNDS EMITTED BY 
THE COMMON SNIPE {SCOLOPAX QALLINAGO). 
By H. Stevenson, E.L.S. 
Read 2 ’jtJi March, i888. 
Extensive as is the literature connected with the drumming, etc., 
of the Snipe, the following transcripts from iny note books, of 
observations made under exceptional, and peculiarly favourable, 
circumstances, may perhaps be acceptable to naturalists and 
ornithologists in particular. 
In the first week of May, 1883, when suffering from insomnia, 
the outcome of severe neuralgia, I determined to try the effect of 
change of air and scene by the river side, and therefore took 
up my quarters at the “ Yare Hotel,” well known to more than 
local anglers, closely adjoining the Brundall Station, on the 
Yarmouth line. I was at once in a line marshy district bordering 
the river, and by it only, separated from Surlingham Broad. 
As all frequenters of this locality know the pathway from the 
station to the ferry at Coldham Hall is bordered on the left by a 
