Teaching Young Birds Tunes. 91 



2. I think myself birds learn best when they 

 can be whistled to. A servant of my father's 

 taught many birds in this way, and he followed no 

 particular system, merely whistled the same tune at 

 any spare moment, generally after or while he was 

 feeding them. 



3. Another bird, a Canary, possessed by some 

 children I knew, was elaborately taught. The chil- 

 dren had a little bird-organ, and each and all played 

 " God save the Queen " on every occasion possible, 

 until, although the bird was two or three years 

 old, it learned to sing it beautifully, as also another 

 ditty. 



4. The earlier the birds are taken from the nest 

 the freer their song will be, in all probability, from 

 notes that are not wanted. The German trainers 

 blow on the bird's feathers, and look cross, and scold 

 it when it sings a wrong note, rewarding it with a 

 hemp -seed or some such treat when it performs 

 successfully. It generally takes several months to 

 learn a tune perfectly. As a general rule those tunes 

 which have a sort of running scale will be found the 

 easiest and the most effective. 



5. The organs of different birds are very various as 

 well as their performances ; but it is apparently a fact 

 that the song of birds is not, strictly speaking, natural, 

 but acquired at the very earliest age, from the notes 

 of the parent singing near the nest ; the knowledge of 



