Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1892 — SINGING BIRDS. [ARTICLE]

SINGING BIRDS.

GROWTH OF THE IMPORTATION OF CANARIES. How They Are Taught—A Bullfinch’s One Fault—Other Cage Birds. In the year 1842, when the first importation of singing birds was made from Germany to New York, cages could not be found for them; the proper food could not be procured; and bird fanciers were so few, that of the one thousand birds landed, the greater number perished unsold. The love for them, however, was kindled and grew. In 1853 the same importer sold ten thousand, and in 1860 fifteen thousand. Last year one NewYork house alone imported from Germany, between the months of September and June, forty-two thousand birds; and this number was equalled, if not excelled, by other houses. A calculation has been made that proves the significant fact that enough iron wire to belt the globe with a netting a yard wide is manufactured yearly into cages for birds. The favorite house-birds are canaries—brought principally from vicinities of the Hartz Mountains—a land noted for pure air and delicious spring waters. They make their voyage of the Atlantic in little cages of a size not more than a hand square, fastened together in rows and piled upon each other under a covering of canvas. The ordinary package, four feet long and two feet broad, contains two hundred birds. Every day during the journey the canvas screen is unfastened and the cages supplied with seed and water, after which attention the poor little prisoners are returned to their gloom, where we trust they com. fort themselves, since sorrow- is the source of “gentle fancies,” by composing songs to sing when they arc free. Toussenel considers the original bird of the Canary Islands—the typical founder of this golden race—“the most skilful, most intelligent, and indefatigable of songsters.” And judging of intellir gence by relative size of brain and body, the canary is entitled to especial respect; for his brain is in proportion to the body as one-fourteenth, which would make—by this mode of estimate—the delectable little biped about half as intelligent as man, and afford ample explanation of his faculty for learning tunes and his aptitude at surprising tricks. And as man—‘‘paragon of animals!”—has his propitious and after-dinner mood, so the canary has his yielding hour, and at evening is most affectionate and most docile to be taught. Both “short-breed” and “long-breed” canaries can be educated to add to their native repertoire of sweet notes a tune or part of a tune and notes of the nightingale, the lark, the robin, and various whistling birds. Such an education adds from four-fold to ten-fold to their normal value; and the process of teaching is not without its delight. The mode of teaching varies as to the instrument used, but the principle of the teaching does not vary. . It is, if not veritably “as old as the hills,” certainly as ancient as the golden days of Greece; for the secret of securing mental impressions is iteration, re-iteration. Over and over again to the listening bird must the tune he is to learn by heart be played or sung; and the musical ear of the little pupil must not be trusted to supply insufficiency in melody or to correct a fault. The bird copies his model as implicitly as if for conscientious task he had been born Chinese; a '.d his accuracy may not always have the good ending of the story of the poor musician’s flute. This flute, dearly beloved by its poverty-stricken owner had but one fault—a broken note—and one auditor—a tailor who lived next door, who came after working hours to hear the poor musician play, and who w-as seized w-ith a covetous admiration for the flute. After awhile the adored instrument disappeared. An old woman w ; as tried for the theft, but was acquitted for the mental “alibi” of being stone-deaf. Time passed on, and the tailor removed to a distant town. The musician, happening to visit the place, set apart an evening to spend with the old admirer of his art. The entertainment of the evening w-as furnished by a learned bull-finch, who whistled tunes as felicitously as a flageolet— tunes that had only one fault; one little break in each of the airs by the missing of one note! The musician recognized with the thrill of remembrance the exact fault, and, with a boldness he could not restrain, * wrung from the tailor a tardy confession of guilt, by exclaiming with all the emphasis of truth: “Now I know who stolemv flute.’’

The bull-finch, the gold-finch, the little brown linnet and speckled thrush, the black-cap, the English robin, the nightingale, and the lark are the favorite songsters caged from north temperate climes; but the ingale and the lark pine for liberty and sometimes die of a broken heart. Parrots, paroquets, and those little African “wax-bills,” “amaranths,” and “quakers,” interesting as they are for pets, can hardly be classified with “sing-ing-birds,” but they share one charm with the canary—the willingness to be housed and the gr titude for their daily bread; not any of these little creatures arc indifferent to the quality of the hospitality they accept. The cage must be clean and canopied from midday sun; the bath and the water to drink must be fresh and pure; the sand and cuttlefish good, and the seed the very best. To win ample song and to keep the voice clear, the cage must not be large, and it must be studiously kept from draughts. The seed must be mixed of Sicily canaryseed and German summer rape-seed. A little hemp, millet, and maw-seed should be added; and an occasional treat or “surprise-dish” of chickweed or lettuce, a bit of boiled carrot, a slice of pear or apple, or morsel of sugar not tardily removed. —[New York Post.