60 
ORGANS OF VOICE. 
again the Bell-Bird’s note was borne upon the wind. We never 
seemed to approach it, hut 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 
someway, the cause; hut 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 hacks, and placed 
near to, hut 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 hough, in the midst of 
its song. He immediately ran to pick it up, hut found it 
