Her RICK, Instinctive Traits of Animals. 125 



was so silvery and soft that I said to a lady who was listening, 

 that a canary able to execute that would be worth a hundred 

 dollars. (I occasionally detected what I am unable to explain, 

 a literal dual sound, very like a boy whistling as he draws a 

 stick along the pickets of a fence). So the music went on, as I 

 listened, watch in hand, until actually nine minutes had elapsed. 

 Now the wonderful fact is, that the rest between the roles was 

 never more than a second of time, and during all the singing, 

 the muscles could be seen in vigorous action through the entire 

 length of the abdomen. This feat would be impossible to a 

 professional singer, and the nearest to it that I have seen was 

 the singing of a bird in the grove. 



"For several days the wheel grated on its axle. This af- 

 forded Hespie great delight, and her own little warble 

 was completely lost in the harsher sound. It was pretty much 

 as it is with some of the modern methods of praise, as when the 

 vocal is subordinated to the instrumental, a mere murmur of 

 song, on which the organist comes down as with the sound of 

 many waters. A drop of oil, and the sound of the friction 

 stopped. This quite excited her temper, and she bit at the 

 wires of her wheel most viciously. A little device was hit upon 

 which set her in good humor again. A strip of stout writing 

 paper, half an inch wide, was pinned down in such a way that 

 its clean-cut upper edge pressed against the wires of the wheel, 

 making with its revolution a pleasant purring sound. It was on 

 the principal of the old time watchman's rattle, and the old toy 

 known as a cricket. 



"This for a while greatly delighted the capricious creature, 

 and she made the wheel almost fly ; at the same time, in unison 

 with the whirr of the wheel, was her own soft, cheery warble. 

 It was very low, yet very distinct. I remember once on a 

 larger scale witnessing an analogous sight, when, unseen, I 

 entered a room in which was a women spinning wool, and sing- 

 ing at the top of her voice, in keeping with the loud whirring 

 of the spinning wheel. Without her wheel the domestic life of 

 little Hespie would be rather monotonous. . . . We next 

 shut her out of the wheel by corking up the entrance. She 

 worked desperately at the closed aperture ; then in despair 

 gave vent to a piercing little cry. It was surprising what a 



