A SEMINARY FOR TEACHING BIRDS HOW TO SING. 



UYING and importing song 

 birds, says the Scientific 

 America}!^ occupies the 

 time and attention of sev- 

 eral scores of people in 

 New York, and as the distributing 

 center of this peculiar trade, the city 

 is often the home of considerable num- 

 bers of song birds gathered from all 

 quarters of the globe. On the East 

 side, in Fourth street, there are several 

 remarkable aviaries where, without 

 doubt, a study of one branch of ornith- 

 ology can be pursued under conditions 

 more favorable than elsewhere on this 

 continent, and a visit to one of these 

 bird conservatories of music is better 

 than a trip to the fields or woods to 

 listen to the songs of the wild warblers. 

 The owner of the aviary is a German 

 — more than probable from some little 

 village in the Hartz Mountams, where 

 bird-raising is the chief industry, — and 

 he n it only feeds and tends his little 

 birds with loving care, but teaches 

 them to whistle and sing in tune to 

 the accompaniment of an old reed 

 organ or flute. 



There are several large importing 

 houses of song birds in New York, and 

 in the busy season they employ from 

 twenty to forty travelers who go back 

 and forth from Europe to purchase the 

 pick of the Canaries, Bullfinches and 

 other European songsters. The con- 

 signments come chiefly from Germany 

 and England. Nearly all the Canaries 

 raised in the world for cage purposes 

 come from these two countries, and 

 most of the German exporting houses 

 have distributing branches in New 

 York. The birds are sent over by 

 steamer in large consignments under 

 the charge of an expert care-tender, 

 who does nothing else but feed and 

 doctor the little pets placed under his 

 charge. One experienced man can 

 take charge of five large crates, each 



one containing two hundred and ten 

 cages of birds, or a little over a thou- 

 sand in all. Sometimes during the 

 rush season the care-tender has five 

 hurricane deckers to watch, or fourteen 

 hundred cages and birds to look after 

 during the long hours of the days and 

 nights. 



That this work is not easy, any one 

 who has had the privilege of looking 

 after a single canary for a week can 

 well understand. Feeding and water- 

 ing over a thousand birds, and clean- 

 ing out their cages every day, makes 

 up a routine of work on shipboard that 

 begins at four o'clock in the morning 

 and does not end until late in the 

 afternoon. When seasickness makes 

 life miserable for the passengers, the 

 canaries are apt to be uncomfortable 

 in their crowded quarters. Sometimes 

 a disease known as " schnappen " 

 breaks out among the Canaries at such 

 times, and as this is fearfully contag- 

 ious, it sweeps through the crowded 

 bird quarters on shipboard and deci- 

 mates the ranks at a terrible rate. 

 Cases are known where only ten birds 

 have survived out of an importation of 

 eight hundred to a thousand, the 

 disease performing its terrible work in 

 a week's time. This is supposed to 

 be caused as much by the over crowded 

 and poorly ventilated condition of the 

 birds' quarters as by the rolling of the 

 ship. If you ask Fritz if his birds get 

 seasick, he will answer emphatically 

 " No ; " but he will add softly to him- 

 self " schnappen." And in that word 

 is conveyed much of meaning that the 

 lay mind cannot appreciate. 



When the imported birds arrive in 

 port, they are hurried immediately to 

 the importing houses, or to the differ- 

 ent quiet aviaries in the German quar- 

 ters, where experienced bird raisers 

 take them in charge. It is at this 

 latter place that one may make an 



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