MH II. HTKVKNSON OX TIIK COMMON SNII'K, 
487 
wide stretch of marshes, fairly dry in summer, but with “ pulk 
li()le.s” and “plashes” here and there, and divided by various 
dykes filled with a profusion of aquatic herbage — Meadow Sweet 
and Ifagged Eobin, as usual, predominating. On the right is a 
wild e.xpanso of sedge and reed, fringed in summer with the gay 
Marsh Marygold and the Bird’s-eye Forget-me-not, but, unlike 
the opposite marshes, a treacherous soil to travei’se, and the haunt 
of numbers of Sedge Warblers and Black-headed Buntings. 
Being well known at the ho.stelry, I had no difficulty in taking 
“ my walks abroad ” at any unconscionable hour, without disturbing 
other inmates, and on the morning after my arrival, the 5th of 
May, when turning out at 5 a.m., the first sound that greeted 
me was the drumming of Snipes over the drier marshes, close to 
the house. 
It M'as a bright summer’s morning, and I soon made out three 
couple of Snipes, flying in pairs, high up in the clear sky, and 
drumming incessantly, whilst at intervals came as distinctly a 
vocal sound resembling, to my ears, the word clnilcn, chnkn, 
repeated rapidly two or three times, with a decided emphasis on 
the first syllable. This vocal note has, I know, been alluded to 
by many authors, though nearly all differ in the rendering of the 
sound itself. 
This note is uttered, again and again, as the bird flies high over 
the marshes, but then only in its ascending flight, as the drumming 
is heard only in descent But, at times this note is emitted when 
the Snipe is coursing swiftly over the mar.shes, only a feu’ feet 
from the ground, and is still heard from the ground when a bird 
alights, presumably at its nest, in the thick herbage. I have also 
noticed that this vocal sound is often heard in lofty flights 
without any drumming succeeding, though the bird may fall 
rapidly (but not to settle down), and the latter seeins, therefore, 
(luite optional, and under control. 
;My attention had never been so distinctly drawn to this chuko, 
chnka note, as on this occasion, though in long summer days 
spent on the broads. Snipes have been drumming for hours in all 
directions ; but on returning from Surlingham Broad to the 
Brundall Station late in the evening, I have often heard that 
sound from the same marshes. 
Such being my experience in the early part of May, and to 
