ORGANS OF VOICE. 59 



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 visi- 

 tant 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 

 singing 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 con- 

 tinue their vocal contest till one frequently drops ofT 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 in Sussex, a Thrush had for some time past 

 perched itself on a particular spray, and made itself a great 

 favourite from its powerful and constant singing ; when one 

 day it was observed by the gardener to drop suddenly from 

 the bough, in the midst of its song. He immediately ran to 

 pick it up, but found it quite dead ; and, upon examination, 

 discovered that it had actually broken a blood-vessel by its 

 exertions, and thus perished. 



That the notes and cries of birds serve them instead of Ian- 





