284 THE BEST MUSIC MASTERS. 



principal supply. About May is the best time to purchase 

 of them birds of the previous year, which have, in the 

 autumn, gone through the ordeal of a first moult, always a 

 very trying one to a feathered songster. 



Canaries, Chaffinches, Piping Bullfinches, are the birds 

 principally imported from Germany, although most other 

 kinds may also be obtained from the same source. 



The first-mentioned are generally taught by a Night- 

 ingale ; these are called ' German Canaries,' and fetch 

 from sixteen shillings to a pound each. English Canaries, 

 with very good powers of song, may be bought from five to 

 ten shillings. The Piping Bullfinches fetch a high price ; 

 if very perfect in the tunes they pipe or whistle, as much 

 as five pounds, seldom less than two pounds. 



A bird that is taught to pipe an air, must have a room 

 to itself, or a number may be taught together, if it is the 

 same air they are all to learn. The lesson is played over 

 on a flute or flageolet, or clearly whistled, at certain intervals 

 during the day, and the learner is rewarded for his efforts 

 to follow the performer, with some of the food of which he 

 is most fond ; so that he comes naturally to associate his 

 music lesson with the pleasure of eating, and is incited to 

 do his best. 



The Blackbird, the Bullfinch, the Linnet, the Skylark, 

 and the Starling, are said to be the most apt learners of 

 artificial notes. The latter is not a Song-bird, but it may 

 be taught to whistle tunes, and articulate words very 

 cleverly. 



The natural song of the Nightingale is so full, rich, and 

 delicious, that any attempts to improve it by art would 

 only spoil it ; happy the bird-trainer who can get this 

 master musician to teach inferior songsters ; the Germans 

 are far more successful in keeping the Nightingale in con- 

 finement than we are, and their schools are well supplied 

 with teachers of this high class : hence the superiority of 

 their birds. 



One of the songsters on whose education the most pains 

 are taken is the Chaffinch ; in its wild state this bird has a 

 few simple call-notes which are by no means musical, but in 

 the German schools an individual is often taught one, two, 



