47 



If a single call note, be it either "'wheet" or "brr," is heard 

 during- any part of the delivery once begun, or if any one tour is 

 uttered indistinctly, disqualification follows immediately. Opening 

 the bill too widely is fatal, as stated before, as no admissible sound 

 can be produced from a more than half-opened pair of mandibles. 

 " Taking off " in too high a key also proves an obstacle sometimes, 

 the strain on the organ being very great, and leading to piercing 

 trills. 



While discriminating between so many varieties in the good points 

 of song made by the apparently best birds once heard, the judge does 

 not overlook the fact that their morning song differs somewhat from 

 that which they produce in the afternoon. In order to profit by this 

 well-known habit of contesting birds, he never minds giving them a 

 second hearing. 



When we proceeded with the final contest, some of the little 

 artists sung better, some worse, and those specimens or teams, which 

 had been put on reserve in the morning, then showed their true worth. 

 The principal cause of this altered state of song was that the whole 

 of the birds assembled had become familiar with each others voices, 

 and the instinctive, individual endeavours to battle for supremacy 

 had somewhat abated. The delivery of their various accomplishments 

 had become steadier, allowing every part of their song to be 

 produced with repose and evenness of finish ; difficult tours, not 

 earlier attempted, were ventured on, but alas! also, defects, at first 

 unsuspected, were in some cases disclosed ; defects which made short 

 work of many prospective distinctions provisionally recorded in the 

 judge's notes. In point of fact, this afternoon trial enabled the 

 judge to easily restrict his awards to the number which the 

 committee had imposed as their limit. 



It took my friend some two hours to award about twenty prizes ; 

 each first, second, and third, and the various winners were then 

 allowed to join their respective teams in the Floral Hall, where the 

 exhibitors and visitors had been anxiously awaiting the final results 

 of the judging. 



The judge's work was, however, not yet done. Many committees 

 like to encourage the less fortunate exhibitor by an acknowledgment 

 -of his endeavours to produce excellence of his strain as a whole. In 



