88 A LONG DAY WITH’ THE BIRDS 
egegs—as to the song notes, they are variable 
indeed. I will endeavour to put into words 
the song of my caged bird, to which I have 
listened many times. It is impossible to 
describe it properly, and it never seems the 
same each time, either the commencement or 
the end differs. The bird often seems to say : 
‘tootch-oh-twee,’ or ‘tootch-oh-twee-twee’ 
pronounced as we would say, ‘ Told you so, 
d’ye see?’ Sometimes it says, © tchitch-er ” 
twice repeated, before bursting into its song, 
uttered in the tone of as a child would say 
‘Get up gee gee.’ It seems to have an anti- 
pathy for my parlour-maid, who has fright- 
ened it in some way, or perhaps her white 
apron offends it. It scolds her very often as 
she comes into the room, with a hissing 
chirr—tr chirr, rr,’ or ‘tschee, tschee,’ and some- 
times with ‘sh’ as pronounced in the word 
‘hush.’ Its song is sometimes like, ‘Did ’em 
like the gee gee’ (‘ gee, gee’ slower), ‘sweet, 
sweet, sweet,’ as if said to a child, and also, 
‘little pee-ee-wit ’ (‘ pee’ very high), besides 
many other continued phrases which I cannot 
