  We present a calculation using lattice QCD of the ratios of decay constants
of the excited states of the pion, to that of the pion ground state, at three
values of the pion mass between 400 and 700 MeV, using an anisotropic clover
fermion action with three flavors of quarks. We find that the decay constant of
the first excitation, and more notably of the second, is suppressed with
respect to that of the ground-state pion, but that the suppression shows little
dependence on the quark mass. The strong suppression of the decay constant of
the second excited state is consistent with its interpretation as a
predominantly hybrid state.
