110 THE OLD SUGAR MILL. 
over the water ; this sound was very familiar 
to me, but so excellent is the imitation that 
for a long time I attributed it to one of the 
numerous coots which abound in most places 
favored by Q. major.” 
If the sounds are not produced by the 
wings, the question returns, of course, why 
the wings are shaken just at the right in- 
stant. To that I must respond with the 
time-honored formula, ‘‘ Not prepared.” 
The reader may believe, if he will, that 
the bird is aware of the imitative quality 
of the notes, and amuses itself by heighten- 
ing the delusion of the looker-on. My own 
more commonplace conjecture is that the 
sounds are produced by snappings and grat- 
ings of the big mandibles (“ He is gritting 
his teeth,” said a shrewd unornithological 
Yankee, whose opinion I had solicited), and 
that the wing movements may be nothing 
but involuntary accompaniments of this al- 
most convulsive action of the beak. But 
perhaps the sounds ave wing-made, after all. 
On the day of which I am writing, at 
any rate, I was troubled by no misgivings. 
I had seen something new, and was only 
desirous to see more of it. Who does not 
