THE CANARY. 13 



I have met many people who exclaimed with vehe- 

 mence that they " could not bear a canary, his song 

 was so loud and sharp," and, after hearing one of the 

 St. Andreasbergs, say, " Oh ! I didn't know a canary 

 could sing like that ; I should be delighted with a 

 bird having such a mellow, rich voice." To me it is 

 a great surprise to meet each day so many who keep 

 birds and yet never owned or even heard a first grade 

 singer, and do not know there is any canary other 

 than some ordinary screecher. 



The St. Andreasberg canary usually sings in the 

 evening, but if you wish him to work evenings he 

 ought to have his cage covered and be put in a 

 darkish place two or three hours in the afternoon. 

 It ruins any voice to work it all the time. These 

 and the Campanini-Holden canary are the smallest 

 of all canaries, being from four and a half to five 

 inches long. The colors are usually a light, mealy 

 yellow or yellow and green. There is sometimes a 

 crested specimen. 



THE CAMPANINI-HOLDEN canary is bred in St. 

 Andreasberg and some other villages of the Harz by 

 a class of men better fitted by education to accept 

 suggestions, especially if the suggestions are based 

 on " more gold." So I have been saying to them, 

 year after year, " The better the song the heavier the 

 gold. There 's no limit to the gold and I hope there 

 will be none to the song." For this reason the most 

 intelligent breeders discard the poorer voices, and 

 then train the better ones' with this master-canary or 

 with the European nightingale. Thus, their birds 



