after zig-zagging about for a time descends to the earth in a curved line, with outspread tail and quivering pinions, and surprising velocity. The sound is emitted only during this rapid descent. No one was able to explain the cause, until M. Meves observed that on each side of the tail the outer feathers are peculiarly formed (fig. 41), having a stiff sabre-shaped shaft
Fig. 41. Outer tail-feather of Scolopax gallinago (from 'Proc. Zool. Soc.' 1858).
with the oblique barbs of unusual length, the outer webs being strongly bound together. He found that by blowing on these feathers, or by fastening them to a long thin stick and waving them rapidly through the air, he could reproduce the drumming noise made by the living bird. Both sexes are furnished with these feathers, but they are generally larger in the male
 Fig. 42. Outer tail-feather of Scolopax frenata. |
 Fig. 43. Outer tail-feather of Scolopax javensis. |
than in the female, and emit a deeper note. In some species, as in S. frenata (fig. 42), four feathers, and in S. javensis (fig. 43), no less than eight on each side of the tail are greatly modified. Different tones are emitted by the feathers of the different species when waved through the air; and the Scolopax Wilsonii of the United States makes a switching noise whilst descending rapidly to the earth.[1]
In the male of the Chamœpetes unicolor (a large gallinaceous bird of America) the first primary wing-feather is arched towards the tip and is much more attenuated than in the female. In an allied bird, the Penelope nigra, Mr. Salvin observed a male, which, whilst it flew downwards "with outstretched wings, gave forth a kind of crashing rushing noise," like the falling of a tree.[2]
- ↑ See M. Meves' interesting paper in 'Proc. Zool. Soc.' 1858, p. 199. For the habits of the snipe, Macgillivray, 'Hist. British Birds,' vol. iv. p. 371. For the American snipe, Capt. Blakiston, 'Ibis,' vol. v. 1863, p. 131.
- ↑ Mr. Salvin, in 'Proc. Zool. Soc.' 1867, p. 160. I am much indebted to this distinguished ornithologist for sketches of the feathers of the Chamæpetes, and for other information.
