viHAP. Xlli. Vocal Music. 369 



the case of a bullfinch which had been taught to pipe a German 

 waltz, and who was so good a performer that he cost ten 

 guineas ; when this bird was first introduced into a room where 

 other birds were kept and he began to sing, all the others, con- 

 sisting of about twenty linnets and canaries, ranged themselves 

 on the nearest side of their cages, and listened with the greatest 

 interest to the new performer. Many naturalists believe that 

 the singing of birds is almost exclusively " the effect of rivalry 

 " and emulation," and not for the sake of charming their mates. 

 This was the opinion of Daines Barrington and White of 

 Selborne, who both especially attended to this subject. 29 Bar- 

 rington, however, admits that " superiority in song gives to 

 " birds an amazing ascendancy over others, as is well known to 

 '* bird-catchers." 



It is certain that there is an intense degree of rivalry between 

 the males in their singing. Bird-fanciers match their birds to 

 see which will sing longest; and I was told by Mr. Yarrell that 

 a first-rate bird will sometimes sing till he drops down almost 

 dead, or according to Bechstein, 30 quite dead from rupturing a 

 vessel in the lungs. "Whatever the cause may be, male birds, as 

 I hear from Mr. Weir, often die suddenly during the season of 

 song. That the habit of singing is sometimes quite independent 

 of love is clear, for a sterile, hybrid canary-bird has been de- 

 scribed 31 as singing whilst viewing itself in a mirror, and then 

 dashing at its own image; it likewise attacked with fury a 

 female canary, when put into the same cage. 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, 

 whilst a stuffed bird, surrounded by limed twigs, is exposed to 

 view. In this manner, as Mr. Weir informs me, a man has in the 

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

 male chaffinches. The power and inclination to sing differ so 

 greatly with birds that although the price of an ordinary 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 whilst the cage is 

 swung round the owner's head. 



That male birds should sing from emulation as well as for 

 charming the female, is not at all incompatible ; and it might 

 have been expected that these two habits would have concurred, 

 like those of display and pugnacity. Some authors, however, 



28 'Philosophical Transactions,' 3 * ' Naturgesch. der Stubenvogei/ 



1773, p. 263. White's 'Natural 1840, s. 252. 



History of Selborne,' 1825, vol. i. p. 31 Mr. Bold, ' Zoologist,' 1 843-44j 



246. p. 659. 



17 



