254 
WALDEN. 
fled breast when be came to the surface, doing all the 
work with his webbed feet beneath. His usual note 
was this demoniac laughter, yet somewhat like that of a 
water-fowl; but occasionally, when he had balked me 
most successfully and come up a long way off, he uttered 
a long-drawn unearthly howl, probably more like that of 
a wolf than any bird; as when a beast puts his muzzle 
to the ground and deliberately howls. This was his 
looning, — perhaps the wildest sound that is ever heard 
here, making the woods ring far and wide. I con¬ 
cluded that he laughed in derision of my efforts, confi¬ 
dent of his own resources. Though the sky was by this 
time overcast, the pond was so smooth that I could see 
where he broke the surface when I did not hear him. 
His white breast, the stillness of the air, and the smooth¬ 
ness of the water were all against him. At length, 
having come up fifty rods off, he uttered one of those 
prolonged howls, as if calling on the god of loons to aid 
him, and immediately there came a wind from the east 
and rippled the surface, and filled the whole air with 
misty rain, and I was impressed as if it were the prayer 
of the loon answered, and his god was angry with me; 
and so I left him disappearing far away on the tumultu¬ 
ous surface. 
For hours, in fall days, I watched the ducks cunning¬ 
ly tack and veer and hold the middle of the pond, far 
from the sportsman; tricks which they will have less 
need to practise in Louisiana bayous. When compelled 
to rise they would sometimes circle round and round 
and over the pond at a considerable height, from which 
they could easily see to other ponds and the river, 
like black motes in the sky; and, when I thought they 
