AMERIOAN ORNITHOLOGY, 119 



bird probably belonging to a different order. I take the following from 

 my note book. It was written on September 24, 1904. 



Last Sunday night as I paddled by some maple and willows on the 

 meadow shore, a voice came from among them, giving plainly the 

 "wakeup" of the Flicker but in a softer and more pleasing tone and 

 ended in a series of fiute-like calls. I wondered what could be respon- 

 sible for these. 



To-night as I opened the cabin door, similar notes came from the 

 margin of the river near by. 



Then there ensued a most unique musical performance. It is impossible 

 to render much of it in words except the wakeup or wickeup. There 

 ways in it something of the same quality that was heard last year in the 

 tones of the gifted Crow. While seeking to identify the notes, the only 

 other birds that were suggested to my mind were the Screech Owl, the 

 Whippoorwill, the Bobwhite and the Sora Rail. I never have heard 

 any other bird than these and the Crow give similar sounds and I never 

 before have heard any bird produce them all. 



The bird, if it was a bird, was evidently in the pickerel weed which 

 grew in the water and its voice moved along the shore from place tO' 

 place. I heard, in the still night the splash and gurgle of the water as 

 if the creature were wading and sometimes swimming. It moved along 

 some four or five rods during the five or six minutes it continued the 

 first serenade. I was able, by whistling, to imitate closely much of its 

 melody, but cannot remember and repeat it, for it was long, wild and 

 varied. 



I fancied at first that a young Whippoorwill just learning to sihg 

 might compass some such sounds as the beginning of the melody, but 

 it soon transcended all Whippoorwill music in sweetness and variety, 

 though not in volume. Then came some tones in imitation of the 

 Screech Owl's note: not the ordinary tremulous whine but the rarer 

 sliding tones that run up the scale, like a siren whistle. 



When I had begun to think the bird might be an Owl, it struck into 

 a whistling imitation of the whine of a puppy, much like that given by 

 the Crow, but far sweeter. 



That non-plussed me. There were given later, however, many- 

 notes that seemed to have the quality of those of the Sora Rail. It 

 was as if the bird had been startled into song by my opening the door; 

 for it was plainly complaining at first, though in the most dulcet and 

 millifluous tones imaginable." 



At last, after perhaps ten minutes of this most delightful perfor- 

 mance, it stopped short. 



It was a glorious night, clear and still. Not a ripple marred the 



