Singing bird box

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A singing bird box (boîte à oiseau chanteur in French) is a box, usually rectangular-shaped, which contains within a miniature automaton singing bird concealed below an oval lid and activated by means of an operating lever.

Its origins are found in the city of Geneva and its invention in 1784/85 is attributed to Pierre Jaquet-Droz.

The French term tabatière has also come to be used for any small decorative box resembling a snuffbox in form but not necessarily any longer used to contain snuff.