50 SEXUAL SELECTION: BIRDS. [Part IL 



birds closely attend to each otlier's song. Mr. Weir lias 

 told me of the ease of a bullfinch which had been taught 

 to pipe a German waltz, and who was so good a performer 

 that he cost ten guineas ; when this bird was first intro- 

 duced into a room where other birds were kept and he 

 began to sing, all the others, consisting of about twenty 

 linnets and canaries, ranged themselves on the nearest 

 side of their cages, and listened with the greatest interest 

 to the new performer. Many naturalists believe that the 

 singing of birds is almost exclusively " the effect of rival- 

 ry and emulation " and not for the sake of charming their 

 mates. This was the opinion of Daines Barrington and 

 White of Selborne, who both especially attended to this 

 subject." Barrington, however, admits that " superiority 

 in song gives to birds an amazing ascendency over others, 

 as is well known to bird-catchers." 



It is certain that there is an intense degree of rivalry 

 between the males in their sinccinor. Bird-fanciers match 

 their birds to see which will sing longest ; and I was told 

 by Mr. Yarrell that a first-rate bird will sometimes sing 

 till he drops down almost dead, or, according to Bech- 

 stein,^" quite dead from rupturing a vessel in the lungs. 

 Whatever the cause may be, male birds, as I hear from 

 Mr. Weir, often die suddenly during the season of song. 

 That the habit of singing is sometimes quite independent 

 of love is clear, for a sterile hybrid canary-bird has been 

 described" as singing while viewing itself in a mirror, 

 and then dashing at its own image ; it likewise attacked 

 with fury a female canary wiien put into the same cage. 



likewise writes to me : "I am informed that the best singing males gen- 

 erally get a mate first when they are bred in the same room." 



*' 'Philosophical Transactions,' 1773, p. 263. White's 'Natural His- 

 tory of Selborne,' vol. i. 1825, p. 246. 



«> ' Naturges. der Stubenvogel,' 1840, s. 252. 



s' Mr. Bold, 'Zoologist,' 1843-'44, p. 659. 



