On Wed, 22 Feb 1995, Dennis Paulson wrote:

> All I can contribute to the commentary on Rufous Hummingbird tail notching
> and sound is to note that tail modification is correlated with mechanical
> sound-making in snipes and woodcocks. And there are wing modifications in
> birds that make mechanical sounds with their wings (some manakins, for
> example, and perhaps some hummers). It's the end of the day, and my brain
> is wearing out; maybe someone can think of additional examples.

How about the narrowed outer primaries in Common Snipe? I had assumed
they were used in the "winnowing" display flight to produce the
"huhuhuhu" noise

Chris Hill
Seattle, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu