"Some wacky duck kept me awake all night! Quack, quack, quack. Quack, quack, quack. Just look at my crest feathers!" The outburst came from Boopsy Shanks, a high-strung black and white Polish. She paced in the cage next to mine at the state fair. She was considered one of the favorites for today's contest.

"Calm down, Boopsy. I didn't hear anything."

"I'm a light sleeper. It's hard to look this good without any beauty sleep." She preened her feathers. "If I could get my wings on the culprit...ooh, I'd like to give him a piece of my beak."

As Chicken In Charge, it was my duty to get to the bottom of this. I looked across the aisle at the three ducks. They were the picture of innocence.

"Do you three have anything to say about this?"

Silence.

"The law will be easier on you if you confess."

Still nothing. OK, that's the way it was going to be. Then one of the ducks pointed to its coop tag. I grabbed my trusty spy glass and read the tag.

"Muscovy."

Rattle-rattle-buzz-grrr...I plugged that data into my bird brain computer and looked at the next tag.

"Muscovy." OK, that checked out. They both had red faces.

I looked at the third cage. White duck, yellow bill. I peered at the tag, "Pekin."

Rattle-rattle-buzz-ding! My bird brain computer had the answer.

"I know which duck kept you up last night, Boopsy."

How did Gertrude know who the wacky quacker was?

Give up? Don't! Keep thinking!! But if you really can't figure it out, scroll down the page for the answer.

Minute Mystery Answer:

Ducks quack, right? All ducks...except the Muscovy. They are known as the quiet duck.

Muscovies make a hissing sound which is hard to hear in noisy places, like a show building.

When presented with this information, the Pekin quacked under pressure and confessed.