Chap. XIIL] VOCAL MUSIC. 51 



The jealousy excited by the act of singing is constantly 

 taken advantage of by bird-catchers; a male, in good 

 song, is hidden and protected, while a stuffed bird, sur- 

 rounded by limed twigs, is exposed to view. In this man- 

 ner a man, as Mr. Weir informs me, has caught, in the 

 course of a single day, fifty, and in one instance seventy, 

 male chaffinches. The power and inclination to sing differ 

 6o greatly with birds that although the price of an ordi- 

 nary male chaffinch is only sixpence, Mr. Weir saw one 

 bird for which the bird-catcher asked three pounds ; the 

 test of a really good singer being that it will continue to 

 sing while the cage is swung round the owner's head. 



That birds should sing from emulation as well as for 

 the sake of charming the female, is not at all incompatible ; 

 and, indeed, might have been expected to go together, 

 like decoration and pugnacity. Some authors, however, 

 argue that the song of the male cannot serve to charm the 

 female, because the females of some few species, such as 

 the canary, robin, lark, and bullfinch, especially, as Bech- 

 stein remarks, when in a state of widowhood, pour forth 

 fairly melodious strains. In. some of these cases the habit 

 of singing maybe in part attributed to the females having 

 been highly fed and confined, 32 for this disturbs all the 

 usual functions connected with the reproduction of the 

 species. Many instances have already been given of the 

 partial transference of secondary masculine characters to 

 the female, so that it is not at all surprising that the fe- 

 males of some species should possess the power of song. 

 It has also been argued, that the song of the male cannot 

 serve as a charm, because the males of certain species, for 

 instance, of the robin, sing during the autumn. 33 But 



32 D. Barrington, 'Phil. Transact.' 1773, p. 262. Bechstein, « Stu- 

 benvogel,' 1840, s. 4. 



33 This is likewise the case with the water-ouzel, see Mr. Hepburn in 

 the 'Zoologist,' 1845-1846, p. 1068. 



