THE CANARY. II 



lovers here, and being personally acquainted with the 

 largest dealers and breeders in Germany, it is 

 possible to show those breeders what qualities of 

 voice are most sought after in America. The best 

 argument so far used is gold; but I have had 

 moments when a rapid-fire gun seemed necessary to 

 let in a little daylight to open up some subject whose 

 brain was protected with that more than steel-clad 

 armor, precedent. 



The differences in the voices, explained above, 

 result from certain methods pursued by the breeders. 

 In the German districts each breeder tries each year 

 to obtain certain desirable characteristics in the 

 voices of his birds, and in a few years some thus get 

 a reputation for breeding such special birds. There 

 are bird-shows and singing matches with blue ribbon 

 and other attachments, so that the exact results 

 which each man has actually obtained are known, not 

 alone in Germany, but in one of the best markets, 

 New York ; and to the blue ribbon man over goes 

 our gold to buy his next year's raising, months before 

 the eggs are laid, and nearly two years before the 

 voices will be sold by me in New York or Boston, or 

 perhaps to some bird lover in St. Louis or San Fran- 

 cisco, whose face I have never seen, and yet am well 

 acquainted with him, his tastes, and daily needs, 

 through the mail bag and telegraph wires. 



So I am not only " counting the chickens before 

 the eggs are hatched," but I buy the bird a year 

 before the egg is laid from which he is to issue, and 

 often sell " him " prior to his existence, guaranteeing 



