60 ORGANS OF VOICE. 



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 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 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 in Sussex, a 

 Thrush had for some time 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 



