Song Birds and Water Fowl 
tate. It was not precisely musical, yet far 
from unmusical: a wild, vague, restless sound, 
somewhat in the mood of the complaining 
wind that sighs through a dark passage ; soft, 
melancholy notes, the over-tones that fittingly 
accompany the moaning of the sea. At the 
middle of the prolonged sound it is, as a 
tule, suddenly inflected downward in a mourn- 
ful cadence that is ‘‘ sadly pleasing’’; and when 
not so inflected the simple note quite resembles 
the soft cree of the red-winged blackbird. But 
their voice is not always hung with crape ; 
there is a hidden, snappy temper in their soul, 
and sometimes they utter a sharp, rasping, vig- 
orous note that ill comports with their mild- 
ness. One writer compares it to the sound 
produced by forcibly tearing a piece of strong 
cotton cloth. At first, I thought that their 
general commotion and continuous lamentation 
were due to their anxiety at my approaching 
their nests; but when I sat down and remained 
perfectly quiet for half an hour, there was no 
pause in their incessant flight and murmuring, 
so I inferred it had no reference to me. 
One peculiarity of this bird is, that it is 
continually varying the form of its tail when 
flying. Sometimes it is no wider than a single 
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