CHATTERERS. 



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before they obtained specimens of the producer of them. Prince Maximilian describes 

 these notes as resembling the sound of a clear-ringing bell, sometimes repeated 

 at intervals, sometimes following each other in quick succession. In the latter case 

 they are more like the sound produced by a blacksmith when he strikes a piece of steel 

 upon an anvil, whence the bird has obtained its Portuguese name ferreiro (smith). 

 The song is heard at all hours of the day, and when, as often happens, several of 

 these birds are in the same neighbourhood, and begin singing against and answering 

 one another, a most wonderful vocal concert is the result." Of this extraordinary 

 bird a living specimen was first acquired for the aviaries of the Zoological Society 



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of London in May 1867. Shortly after it arrived in the Society s gardens it 

 commenced its song, and continued to pour forth its peculiar notes at intervals of 

 more or less frequency for several weeks. These notes have been described by an 

 accurate observer in the following manner: — " The first note is a loud, harsh, and 

 somewhat grating noise ; this is followed by six or eight fine, clear, metallic, ringing 

 notes, with an interval of about a second between each of them. The resemblance 

 of these to the sound of an anvil is most extraordinary. The clear metallic ring, 

 repeated at about the same rate that a blacksmith strikes upon the anvil, is so 

 perfect that many persons on hearing it are unwilling to believe the sound could 

 be produced by the delicate organs forming the vocal apparatus of so small a bird." 

 So admirable is the imitation that, when the first bell-bird reached the London 



