THE CANARY BIRD. 27 



These birds are also distinguished by their correctness of 

 ear, the remarkable skill they possess of imitating all tones, 

 and their excellent memory. Not only do they imitate the 

 notes of other birds, which they greatly improve by mixing 

 them with their own, but they will even learn to utter short 

 words with some degree of correctness. In their wild and 

 undomesticated state, their song is unvaried, as with most other 

 birds, less melodious, of fewer notes, and uttered at longer 

 intervals than with us ; at least, I found them so, as far as my 

 observation extended, when a resident of the Canary Isles. 



ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 



Those birds, from which are descended the Canaries now 

 kept and reared throughout the whole of Europe, and even in 

 Russia and Siberia, as well as in various parts of North and 

 South America, in an unadulterated state, are natives of the 

 Canary Islands, where they breed in pleasant valleys, and on 

 the delightful banks of small rills, or streams. They were 

 known in Europe as long ago as the beginning of the sixteenth 

 century, as we are told, concerning their arrival, that, " A ship, 

 which, in addition to other merchandize, had a multitude of 

 Canaries on board, that were consigned to Leghorn, was 

 wrecked on the coast of Italy, and the birds, thereby obtaining 

 their liberty, flew to the nearest land." This happened to be 

 Elba, where they found so propitious a climate, that they multi- 

 plied without the intervention of man, and probably would 

 have naturalised themselves, had not the wish to possess them 

 been so great as to occasion them to be hunted after until they 

 were entirely extirpated. In Italy, therefore, we find the first 

 tame Canaries, where they are still raised in great numbers. 

 At first, their rearing in Europe was attended with con- 

 siderable difficulty, partly because the mode of treating 

 these delicate strangers was not sufficiently understood, but 

 principally because males, chiefly, and not females, were 

 ^ introduced. 

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