Galinago delicata. 
Lake Umbagog, Maine. 
1394. I listened in vain for any other of the sounds of spring 
i 
Sept. 21. until presently a Snipe drummed directly overhead. Soon after¬ 
ward I heard another and then another, until at one time they 
were drumming on every side and almost incessantly. The marsh-- 
es were evidently alive with them to-night, for besides the 
drumming birds I saw dozens of others , cutting to and fro 
against the faint light in the western shy. As they shot down 
to their feeding grounds, their wings made a rushing sound so 
exactly like that of Dachas wings, that I was constantly de~ 
ceived. Whem they merely flitted from one mud bank to the 
next, their wings rustled loudly. They used only the scaipe 
cry when flying, but the feeding birds kept up a constant call¬ 
ing to one another^ making a low but penetrating kup . kr-r -uck ; 
very like the call of the Florida Gallinule. I think that I 
have identified this cry before, but it puzzled me, at first, 
this evening. As a rule only &wo birds were calling at one 
time, one appearing to answer the other. The call was varied 
a good deal in both form and tone. At times it was not unlike 
the hep of a Carolina Rail, but there can be no doubt that the 
Snipe were the authors of the sound. These Snipe were feeding 
on small isolated ^tmps and hummocks of mud which-were sur- 
y 
A 
rounded by water six to eight inches in depth. ( They came -to- 
thirs-p-laee from every direction and some of them evidently f** om lor *8 
distances# • /05~ 
