6 INHERITANCE IN CANARIES. 



Konrad Gesner, who mentions the bird in his book " De Avium 

 Natura," of which the first edition was published in 1555, had never 

 seen it. According to Olina (1622) only males were, for many years, 

 imported, but in the middle of the sixteenth century a Spanish ship, 

 which presumably carried also some female canaries, was wrecked near 

 the Isle of Elba, and the birds escaped, and populated it and created 

 there a peculiar strain in that they were yellower beneath the chin than 

 those brought directly from the Canary Islands. These birds of Elba 

 were trapped by the Italians, bred in captivity, and sold in Italy, in the 

 Tyrol, and in Germany, in which latter country they were already being 

 bred in captivity in many places in the middle of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury. Already at the beginning of that century Aldrovandi had been 

 able to get the bird as a basis for a figure in his Ornithologise (1599-1603). 

 From Germany the canaries were, in the middle of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, exported to England and other countries and were already regarded 

 as improved over the wild species,* but their color was still green. t 



The spread of canary culture was aided by the fact that they 

 became a society fad. Owing to their high price, they were attain- 

 able only by the wealthy and so became a mark of that class. Ladies 

 received visitors with a canary perched on the index finger and were 

 painted in that attitude, t 



From the beginning of the eighteenth century there is a constantly 

 increasing output of books devoted to cage-birds in general and canary 

 birds in particular, § so that it is possible to reconstruct their history. 



*In Willoughby's Ornithology (Ray, 1678), quoting an earlier English author, it is 

 stated : ' ' Canary birds of late years have been brought abundantly out of Germany 

 and are therefore now called German birds ; and these German birds in handsome- 

 ness and song excel those brought out of the Canaries. 



tin "The Gentleman's Recreation," published in 1677, we find that at that date 

 canaries in England were of a green color. (See Blakston, Swaysland & Wiener, 

 1880, 5.) 



tin the New York Public Library is a little sociological tract entitled, "Canary 

 Birds Naturalized in Utopia: A Canto." London, ca. 1708. The canto begins: 



In our unhappy days of Yore, 



When foreign Birds, from German Shore, 



Came flocking to Utopia's Coast, 



And o'er the Country rul'd the Roast : — 



Of our good People did two-thirds 



So much admire Canary Birds 



For outward Show, or finer Feathers 



Far more regarded than all others. 



We bought ' em dear and fed ' em well, 



Till they began for to rebel. 



§The most famous of early works is that of J. C. Hervieux: "Nouveau traits des 

 Serins de Canarie, contenant la maniere de les & Clever les appareiller pour en avoir 

 de belles races ; avec des remarques aussi curieuses que n^cessaires sur les signes 

 et causes de leur maladies et les secrets pour les gu^rir." 12 mo., Paris, 1st edition, 

 1705 [5 editions to 1785]. This work was translated into English, German, and Italian. 



