62 ORGANS OF VOICE. 



hear the low and solemn sound of a distant passing-bell. 

 When all was silent, it came at intervals upon the ear, 

 heavy and slow, like a death-toll ; all again was then 

 silent, and then again the Bell-Bird's note was borne 

 upon the wind. We never seemed to approach it, but 

 that deep, melancholy, distant, dream-like sound, still 

 continued, at times, to haunt us like an omen of evil." 



How the Bell-Bird utters this deep loud note is not 

 known, though it is supposed that a fleshy protuberance 

 on its head, which, when inflated with air, stands up like 

 a horn, is, in some way, the cause; but the Goat-suckers, 

 in all probability, are indebted to their peculiar width of 

 mouth and throat for this power of voice ; for many 

 other birds, in uttering loud notes, are observed to puff 

 and swell out their throats in a very extraordinary 

 manner. For instance, our little summer visitant and 

 sweet songster, the Blackcap, when warbling forth his 

 finest notes, distends his throat in a wonderful degree ; 

 and those who have chanced to see a Brown Owl in the 

 act of hooting, will have noticed, that they swell up their 

 throats to the size of a Pigeon's egg. And persons, who 

 have fine ears for music, have ascertained, by comparing 

 their notes with a pitch-pipe, that their variations are 

 according to certain rules ; most of them hooting in B 

 flat, though some went almost half a note below A. 

 This strain upon the throat is sometimes carried to a 

 pitch which endangers the bird's life. The bird-fanciers 

 in London, who are in the habit of increasing the sing- 

 ing powers of birds to the utmost, by training them, by 

 high feeding, hot temperature of the rooms in which 

 they are kept, and forced moulting, will often match one 

 favourite Goldfinch against another. They are put in 

 small cages, with wooden backs, and placed near to, but 

 so that they cannot see, each other : they will then raise 

 their shrill voices, and continue their vocal contest till 

 one frequently drops off its perch, perfectly exhausted, 

 and dies on the spot. This will even happen sometimes 

 to birds in a wild state. In the garden of a gentleman 



