J93 



A CHAFFINCH SINGING MATCH. 



By Ar.BKRT Rkttich. 



Soiiie years ago, when writing for some foreign 

 weeklies, I gave an acconnt of a lyondou Chaffinch 

 singing match wliich met with some approval, and it has 

 occurred to me that a translation might be of interest. 



The natural song of the Chaffinch, in spite of its 

 brevity and consequent reiteration, finds many admirers 

 in all countries. Man, however, is constantly endeavour- 

 ing to improve upon Nature, and although in some 

 directions his efforts had better not have been made, yet it 

 must be admitted that the song of many wild birds can 

 be trained to please the human ear better than Nature's 

 teacliing. 



Scarcely any two wild Chaffinches sing exactly the 

 same strophe; caged nestlings are therefore trained to 

 imitate the songs of two or three different old birds, 

 neither of whose strain resembles the others. Clever 

 youngsters learn to sing each of the several songs in 

 turn, thus combining in one bird the vocal powers of 

 them all. Such accomplished songsters as these are 

 greatly appreciated by the amateur, but they are not used 

 in singing matches, points in such competitions being 

 awarded only for the frequency with which the bird 

 repeats the one strophe of his natural song; and a 

 champion "battler" at singing matches would by no 

 means be a desirable cage bird, the objectionable 

 re-iteration of only one short strophe having been 

 encouraged to such an extent that a really "good match 

 singer" will repeat the same " lay " some 250 times in a 

 quarter-of-an-hour, which is the ordinary time limit of 

 singing matches. 



My foreign readers had the account of one match 

 inflicted upon them, which runs somewhat as follows : 



A match, arranged between " Costermonger Joe," of 

 Bricklane, and "Long Bill," of Kingsland, is announced 

 by the landlord of the "Cock and Bottle," of Shoreditch, 

 to be brought off, say, on Saturday week. The fraternity 



