46 



and clung to the wires, or otherwise showed uneasiness, even fear, 

 .and when they settled down to business at last they hunied over 

 their w T ork in an excited manner, which would have horrified their 

 owner had he been allowed to be present. The judge perceived that 

 their travelling- for the first time, and their arrival amidst strange 

 surroundings, from which new song tours and challenges were hurled 

 at them from all sides, had unfitted them to sing as well as they 

 doubtlessly did at home. They were considerately put back for a 

 later hearing, to give them a chance of quieting down. Eventually it 

 proved that their training had really been of a most refined order, 

 and that the judge's forbearance was well bestowed. 



The following team was remarkable for its couple of repre- 

 sentatives endowed with unusual staying power. We counted 

 twenty-five changes in each, all of excellent clearness, duration, and 

 correct order. My own difficulty was to which to give the preference, 

 both seeming perfectly alike in all points. The judge cut the Gordian 

 knot by pointing out that one had to use greater bodily exertion to 

 produce his song than the other, and would, consequently, wear 

 himself out sooner. Upon closely watching the shaking body and 

 quivering head and tail of the rejected one, I could only marvel at the 

 extent of my friend's perspicuity, and confess my own comparative 

 ignorance. At any rate, I had thereby been taught why one received 

 only a second prize. 



After three hours' assiduous work a couple of hundred com- 

 petitors had passed the judge's chair, and out of the number some 

 three score had to be heard a second time. 



One stumbling block which caused many a good bird to be "out" 

 from the first was disorderly delivery of its changes. An abrupt rise 

 or fall of anything like an octave (easily defined by the bird-flute) is 

 a fault and militates against success. No matter how high the 

 starting note may be rendered, the voice must gradually descend by 

 easy, well-defined stages to the lower octaves, amongst which are 

 found the various " flutes ; " tu-tu-tu, the metallic bubbles, right down 

 to the deepest rolls, from which a complete re-ascent is sometimes 

 achieved, not by climbing back over the same steps, but by a totally 

 different route. For a journey such as this, the command of twenty- 

 five " tours " is none too many. 



