Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1881 — The Trade in Canaries. [ARTICLE]

The Trade in Canaries.

The importation of canaries from Germany to this country amounts to nearly 80,000 birds every year. The importation began about the year 1847, and has been steadily increasing ever since. Almost without exception the imported canaries now come from the little town of Andreasberg, in Hanover, Prussia. The town nestles among the Hartz mountains, and most of the men are miners, the mines of cobalt, lead, nickel and iron being among the best in that part of the country. The women of the town, the population of which numbers about 4,000 souls, make almost as much money as the men by breeding canaries. The industry sprang up about 150 years ago, and has since been carried on steadily, certain families having worldwide reputations among bird fanciers for the peculiar excellence of their birds, the training of the birds being a matter of skill handed down in families from generation to generation. The birds pair in February and begin to come to this country about June. They come in crates of little boxes, such as they are «pld in, 200 in a crate, and the losses on 'Wm voyage are usually very small, not iaOHJJpmting to more than 5 per centrum The little wooden cages in which the birds are imported and sold are made by the children and women of the Hartz mountains, and cost there 4 cents apiece. Dealers pay an average price of 50 cents for their birds and take the risk of transportation. There is no duty on canaries. The highest-priced birds come from Belgium, and are recognized at a glance by their long, thin forms. In New York a fair Belgian singer is worth six to ten dollars, but excellent Andreasberg birds which sing pleasantly may be bought here at from two to three dollars. A canary has no natural song, and if not taught will not sing at all. Bird fanciers say that Americanbred canaries are of no great value because their notes never possess the musical qualities of imported birds. No reason for this degeneration is known, unless, as is surmised, the German canaries profit by the nightingales, linnets and other birds which they hear, and which can not be brought to this country.