160 
BIRDS IN A VILLAGE. 
ringing, lusty, triumphant call of Chanticleer, as 
the far-reaching toll of the bell-bird sounds above 
the screaming and chattering of parrots and toucans 
in the Brazilian forest. A fine sound, which in 
spite of many changes of climate and long centuries 
of domestication still preserves that forest-born 
character of wildness, which gives so great a 
charm to the language of many woodland galli- 
naceous birds. As we have seen, it is variable, 
and in some artificial varieties has been suffered to 
degenerate into sounds harsh and disagreeable ; yet 
it is plain that an improved voice in a beautiful 
breed would double the bird's value from an 
aesthetic point of view. As things now are, the fine 
voices are in a very small minority. Some bad 
voices in artificial breeds — i.e. those which, like the 
Brahma and Cochin, diverge most widely from 
the original type — are perhaps incurable, like the 
rook's voice; for that bird will probably always 
caw hoarsely in spite of the musical throat which 
anatomists find in it. We can only listen to our 
birds, and begin experimenting with those already 
possessed of shapely notes and voices of good quality. 
I am not going to be so ill-mannered as to 
conclude without an apology to those among us who 
under no circumstances can tolerate the crowing of 
the cock. It is true that I have not been altogether 
