78 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



or otherwise of each other's vocal performances. Charles 

 Darvvm, in the " Descent of Man," relates a striking case 

 which was communicated to him by a competent observer 

 of a bullfinch which had been taught to pipe a German 

 waltz, and was otherwise a superior songster, being let 

 into a room where other birds were kept. As soon as the 

 bullfinch began to sing all the other birds, consisting of some 

 twenty linnets and canaries, ranged themselves on the 

 nearest sides of their cages and listened with the utmost 

 interest to the new performer. That birds often pidde 

 themselves upon their vocal performances, and try to excel 

 one another in this respect, is known to every observant 

 person who has kept canaries and finches. Indeed, they 

 occasionally seem anxious to display their vocal superiority 

 over birds which, to a human being, could not possibly be 

 their rivals in song. A friend of mine told me the other 

 day that his canary had just been evidently trying to 

 " sing down " a sparrow chirping from a neighbouring 

 bush. Certain birds, too, including our New Zealand bell- 

 bird, sing in concert. Vocal displays of this kind are 

 devoid of the sexual element, and indicate the existence 

 in birds of a faculty of refined enjoyment which can hardly 

 be distinguished in kind from the ossthetic faculty in man. 



Other actions of birds lead to the same conclusion. 

 The jacana, a South American rail, says Hudson, goes 

 through "a remarkable performance which seems specially 

 designed to bring out the concealed beauty of the silky, 

 greenish-golden wing quills. The birds go singly or in pairs, 

 and a dozen or fifteen individuals may be found in a marshy 

 place feeding within sight of each other. Occasionally, in 

 response to a note of invitation, they all in a moment leave off 

 feeding and fly to one spot, and, forming a close cluster, and 

 emitting short, excited, rapidly-repeated notes, display their 

 wings like beautiful flags grouped loosely together : some 

 hold their wings up vertically and motionless, others half 

 open and vibrating rapidly, while still others wave them up 

 and down with a slow, measured motion." Both sexes take 

 part in these displays ; but, in the case of another South 

 American bird, the gallo, or cock-of-the-rock, the males alone 

 assemble in numbers at certain spots in the forest and dance 

 two or three at a time before the rest. The dancing parties, 

 or " sacaleli," of the paradise birds in their native forests, of 

 which a vivid description has been given by Wallace, may 

 also be noticed. The birds choose for the purpose certain 

 trees " which have an immense head of spreading branches 

 and large but scattered leaves, giving a clear space for the 

 birds to play and exhibit their plumes. On one of these trees 

 a dozen or twenty full-plumaged male birds assemble together, 



