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PARRAKEETS AND PAINT.


Sir, — I have a good out-door aviary into which I should like to put

Australian and other Parrakeets. It was intended for foreign Doves, and

the boards and some perches are painted white. Is there danger of the

Parrakeets eating this paint ?


O. E. CRESSWEER.



THE CANARY AS A SONG-BIRD.


Sir,—B y one of the rules of our Society. Canaries are excluded from

subjects of discussion, and I quite approve of it so far as fancy Canaries are

concerned. How some people can admire a deformity like a Belgian

Canary I cannot understand! My sympathies with the Canary are in his

character of a song-bird. His advantages being (i) tameness, (2) singing

more continuously than most birds during the year, (3) capacity for

education. With the exception of Mocking-birds, I think all song-birds

are best with their natural wild song ; but the song of the domesticated

Canary can hardly be called its natural song. It is certainly totally

different from the song of a wild Canary I once possessed, and I think most

people w r ith an ear for music will allow that the song of an ordinary

Canar}^ is not always altogether pleasing. The Hartz Mountain Canaries

are an example of what can be done in educating the Canarv to sing as

desired. The song of the Hartz Mountain bird has nothing harsh or

disagreeable about it, but it is too artificial to please me.


Now, I think if Canaries were taught to sing the song of some of our

best songsters, such as the Nightingale or Woodlark, a distinct advantage

would be gained for lovers of bird song, as we could then have the song of

these birds throughout the year, and without the care and trouble necessary

to keep such insectivorous birds in health. The Woodlark, for instance, is

very difficult to keep alive during its moult; and unless one has a good chance

of keeping such a bird alive, it is cruel to keep it caged, doomed to almost

certain death. Ever since reading Bechstein’s “Natural History of Cage-

birds,” it has been my desire to possess a Canary with the Nightingale's

song. I tried the experiment once, of teaching a Canary the song of a

Nightingale, in India; but my English Nightingale sang from November to

March or April, and so the young Canary, hatched about March, did not

get enough tuition, and only retained one or two of the harsher notes of

the Nightingale, which spoiled his song, and eventually all my Canaries

spoiled their songs, by picking up these same notes. I believe, with two or

three months tuition, satisfactory results would probably be obtained.


Accordingto advertisements, Hartz Mountain Rollers are described as

having Nightingale notes; but in those I have heard I have not been able

to detect any such notes ; and I believe the Germans prefer the birds that

can give an artificial musical performance. INI}' idea is that, if you want

artificial music, you can have it much better on an instrument; whereas,

the natural notes of birds cannot be obtained from instruments. I should

like to hear of the experience of other aviculturists, who may have

experimented in teaching the Canary the songs of other birds.


I once kept a Canary and a Goldfinch; and the Canary, although an

adult bird, learned the song of the Goldfinch, which it sang quite separately

from its own, sometimes singing like a Canary and sometimes like a

Goldfinch.


As the idea of admitting Canaries as song-birds may not have

occurred to the framers of the rules of our Society, I think you might

publish this letter, to see if other members of the Society would be in

favour of the present rule being altered, so as to admit “ Canaries as song¬

birds ” as one of the subjects allowed for discussion.



C. Harrison,



