THE OLD SUGAR MILL. 109 



what shall a man trust, if not his own eyes 

 and ears, especially when each confirms the 

 other? Two days afterward, nevertheless, 

 I began to doubt. I heard a grackle " sing " 

 in the manner just described, wing-beats and 

 all, while flying from one tree to another; 

 and later still, in a country where boat-tailed 

 grackles were an every-day sight near the 

 heart of the village, I more than once saw 

 them produce the sounds in question with- 

 out any perceptible movement of the wings, 

 and furthermore, their mandibles could be 

 seen moving in time with the beats. So 

 hard is it to be sure of a thing, even when 

 you see it and hear it. 



" Oh yes," some sharp-witted reader will 

 say, " you saw the wings flapping, beat- 

 ing time, and so you imagined that the 

 sounds were like wing-beats." But for once 

 the sharp-witted reader is in the wrong. 

 The resemblance is not imaginary. Mr. F. 

 M. Chapman, in A List of Birds Observed 

 at Gainesville, Florida, 1 says of the boat- 

 tailed grackle ( Quiscalus major) : " A sin- 

 gular note of this species greatly resembles 

 the flapping of wings, as of a coot tripping 

 1 The Auk, vol. v. p. 273. 



