COMMON SNIPE 
when first visiting the East will be surprised at the ease with which he can 
kill a right and left time after time, but the fact is that the birds really 
twist and fly more slowly in a warm climate, and are infinitely easier 
to shoot. There is a popular belief that the snipe, when rising, uses its 
bill like a jumping pole to assist it in springing from the ground; but, 
as Mr Shaw has pointed out, this supposed habit can be explained in 
a very simple and natural manner. Snipe are sometimes suddenly 
disturbed when feeding with the bill thrust deep into the ground, and 
acting under the impulse of sudden fear, spring into the air without 
first withdrawing the bill. Thus a bird may sometimes be seen as it 
were balanced for a second or two on its bill before it is able to free 
itself. Occasionally the bill is so firmly buried in the earth that in 
attempting to rise the bird turns a complete somersault. 
Under this heading must be included the remarkable habit of the 
common snipe, and many of its allies, of executing aerial evolutions 
and “ bleating ” or “ drumming ” during the breeding-season. In early 
summer the male (and sometimes also the female) may often be seen 
circling round high over the breeding-ground for long periods, sometimes 
mounting to such a height that it appears a mere speck in the sky. Every 
few minutes it darts obliquely downwards with half -closed wings and 
widely extended tail, then shoots up again and regains its former 
elevation. At each downward rush a strange bleating sound is produced 
by the rush of wind meeting the stiffly extended outer pair of tail- 
feathers, and causing their peculiarly constructed inner webs to 
vibrate. 
The “ bleating ” or “ drumming ” of the snipe is a subject on which 
much has been written, and about which there has been, and still is, 
much difference of opinion. Many still maintain that the sound proceeds 
from the throat; others are equally positive that it is produced by the 
wings, or by the contact of the tips of the wing -feathers with the outer 
feathers of the tail ; but it has now been conclusively proved that the outer 
pair of tail-feathers, and to a less degree the next or sixth pair, produce 
the intense vibrating sound which resembles the bleating of a sheep or 
goat. During the headlong stoop, when alone the sound is heard, the two 
outermost tail-feathers are held out rigidly, well beyond the remaining 
twelve, by means of a small muscle attached to them. 
The assertion that the “ bleating ” is produced by the tail-feathers was 
first made by Meves, of Stockholm, in 1856, when he was led to experi- 
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