I 
186 TIIE SNIPE. 
This note is probably produced by an undulatory motion 
of air in the throat, while in the act of whirling flight ; and 
appears most distinct as the Snipe descends towards the 
ground. However produced, the sound and its originators 
are commonly so concealed by the fast closing shades of 
night, and the elevation from whence it issues in cloudy 
weather, that the whole seems shrouded in mystery. 
My aged maternal parent (says Mr. Nuttall) remembered, 
and could imitate with exactness this low wailing murmur, 
which she had for so many years heard over the marshes of 
my native Bibble, in the fine evenings of spring, when all 
nature seemed ready to do homage for the bounties of the 
season ; and yet at the age of seventy, the riddle had not 
been expounded with satisfaction. 
Over the wide marshes of Fresh Pond, about the middle 
of April, my attention was called to the same invisible 
voice, which issued from the floating clouds of a dark 
evening; the author was here called the Alewife Bird, 
from its arrival with the shoals of that fish in the neigh- 
bouring lake. 
From the elevation at which the sound issued, probably, 
it appeared less loud and distinct than that which I have 
since heard from the English Snipe. I imagined then, 
that the noise was made by the quick and undulatory fan- 
ning of the wings, but this would not produce the shrillness 
of tone by which it is characterized, as any one may satisfy 
himself by hearkening to the very different low buzz 
