826 
GALLINAGO SCOLOPACINA. 
June, and obtained eggs on the 12th of the latter month. In the territory of Jakoutsk, North-eastern 
Siberia, and in Taimyr-land, the breeding-season commences at the beginning of June, and the young are 
about at the end of July. VonMiddendorff writes : — “On the 11th of June a female which we killed contained 
an egg with an already hard shell ; on the 21st of June a nest with four eggs was found. On the 31st of July 
the young were almost fully feathered, and on the 5th of August the last example of the species seen there 
was shot.” 
The nest is placed on the ground, usually in a little depression near a tuft of grass or little earth-mound ; 
and this is lined with dried grass, a few leaves, or sprigs of heather. The eggs vary from three to four in 
number, and are very variable in colour. A beautiful series of specimens in Mr. Seebohm's collection are 
respectively greyish stone of various tints, olive-stone, and brownish buff in ground-colour, and vary as much 
in markings : some have zones of confluent colouring (sienna-red) round the large end, on which another zone 
of linear markings of black is scribbled ; others have the large end surrounded by clouds and blotches of rich 
sepia of two shades, with here and there a few streaky marks, while the rest of the egg is richly marked with 
softened blotches of sepia. Others are rather thickly blotted all over with sepia over bluish-grey spottings, 
with inky-black blotches at the top; these are the palest eggs. Some, again, are clouded over the large end 
with sepia, and very sparingly marked at the small end with the same, with the usual hieroglyphic seribblings 
at the first-named part. These eggs vary in length from 1-46 to 1’64 inch, and in breadth from TOG to T13 
inch. Dr. Scully describes the eggs he obtained in Kashgar as being of a dirty olive-green colour, the large 
end nearly covered with confused blotches of brown and brownish black, and the constricted portion marked 
with some largish spots of brownish. Dimensions of two specimens T58 by I'll inch and T58 by 1T3 inch. 
I have referred above to the singular noise made by the Snipe during the breeding-season, which is 
variously termed “ bleating,” “ neighing,” “ drumming,” and which is made by the bird when, after flying 
round and round its nest or young, it descends with wings and tail extended, with an apparently tremulous 
motion of both, its whole frame being at the time in a state of rigidity or extreme tension. Some years ago 
Herr Meves, of Stockholm, published a paper detailing an account of some ingenious experiments which he 
had carried out with a view of proving that the sound was made by the bird’s tail-feathers. His theory seems 
to have obtained general credence on the supposition, apparently, that because a mail under certain conditions 
could succeed in making various sounds with the outer tail-feather of a Snipe, the bird itself must necessarily 
do the same ! Herr Meves's experiment consisted in tying the outer tail-feather, which has a sickle-shaped 
and rather rigid shaft, a narrow outer and a broad inner web, to a wire inch in diameter, lashing the latter 
to a stick about 5 feet long (whereby he obtained a “play” or “stroke” of about 5 feet), and then moving it 
backwards and forwards in a horizontal position, accompanied by a tremulous movement of the arm. He thus 
succeeded in making a noise which he considered was astonishingly similar to that produced by the Snipe. 
Mr. Hancock, in his valuable catalogue of the birds of Northumberland and Durham ( loc . cit.), was apparently 
the first to point out that the vibrations of the outer tail-feather as made by the Snipe cannot possibly be 
similar to those made by Herr Meves, and states that he made the same experiments without succeeding in 
producing the sound in question ; and at the same time aptly remarks that a much nearer approach to it can 
be made “ by waving backwards and forwards, with short strokes, a cane 2 or 3 feet long.” The whole 
matter hinges upon the conditions under which the feather is moved, as also the distance from the ear. It is 
swayed backwards and forwards, in the manner he described, at a distance, or with a radius, of some 6 or 7 
feet from the centre of motion ; and of course a whizzing sound can be made, as the feather is stiff' and very 
peculiarly constructed; when it is, however, vibrated by means of a movement in the caudal vertebra of the bird 
the distance of the tip of the feather is only about 4 inches from the centre of motion, and the same sound 
could not possibly be produced. I have tried the experiment, and have succeeded in making a sharp whizzing 
noise ; but this by no means proves that, under the altered conditions which I have shown to exist, the bird can 
do the same. Mi. Hancock is of opinion that the sound is produced by the wings, which is a much more rea- 
sonable hypothesis, as most people are acquainted with the noise that the Lapwing unmistakably thus produces. 
Prior to reading Mr. Seebohm's notes on the ornithology of Siberia, and conversing with that gentleman on 
the subject, I was inclined to agree with Mr. Hancock ; but I now consider that it is much more likely it is a 
combined vocal and mechanical sound produced by the bird's bill. He writes (Ibis, 1879, p. 157), concerning 
the Great or Double Snipe: — “Frequently I have sat partially concealed between a couple of willow bushes 
