The Drumming of the Snipe

Abstract

IT is disputed whether the snipe's drumming—a curious noise, suggestive of a miniature threshing machine—is made by the bird with its wings or by its tail, or by both wings and tail. Some recent observations incline me strongly to believe that the tail plays at any rate the more important part. During the performance the bird flies at a great height round and round in a wide sweeping circle. At intervals he makes a sudden and rapid descent, holding his wings partly flexed and his tail spread to its full extent. The outermost tail feather on either side points outward at a greater angle than those adjoining it, so that when the bird is watched through a good field glass daylight shows between it and the next; and, if I am right in my view, the drumming sound is due to the rush of air against this isolated feather. The snipe's tail feathers seem so puny that it is at first difficult to believe that they can produce so great a result. But if an outer one be taken—it is slightly scimitar-shaped with the outer web much reduced—and swung rapidly through the air, the drumming noise may be distinctly heard, though it seems but a very faint echo of the loud throbbing hum that startles one when it suddenly descends from an ethereal height, and the small bird is descried, hardly more than a speck to the naked eye, circling round in wild career, and now and then swooping headlong downwards and thrilling the air with his weird music.