200 NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



this training he was never known to begin to make a sound 

 till the canaries bad first struck the key-note, yet. after 

 he had acquired the skill to sing their song, he must al- 

 ways himself now give the signal by a significant cluck, 

 when, instantly, the canaries, generously forgetting or 

 forgiving his former incivilities, would strike in with, and 

 perform the piece with the greatest perfection, and with 

 the highest delight to themselves and the listening family, 

 who enjoyed this singular concert through the early part 

 of every day for the whole summer. 



4. It is also worthy of remark that this successful es- 

 sayist in foreign music was never known to utter a note, 

 or to attempt to utter a note, in his native tongue, till he 

 had mastered the canary. Then, after a few weeks, when 

 he found himself something of an independent singer, and 

 capable, as he thought, of leading the choir, he at last 

 ventured to go without the chorus and attempt his own 

 native melody. In his first attempts at the solo, it was 

 most diverting to hear him in confused notes — part in his 

 native bobolink, and part in canary, till at length he was 

 able to expel all foreign element from his style and sing 

 only the pure bobolink. 



5. Having now succeeded in this, he proposed to the 

 canaries to try the chorus again, and gave the "cluck,'" 

 when the canaries, instant to the sign, started off singing 

 their own native song. But not so the bobolink ; he 

 threw himself on his "reserved rights" and sang bobo- 

 link ; and so they have continued to the present time, he 

 singing bobolink, and they canary. And as he is the chor- 

 ister, they begin when he does, and end when he ends, 

 precisely at the same instant. 



6. When this bobolink was first caught, his colors were 

 a bright, beautiful black and white. After molting, he, 

 for some reason not stated, never resumed his original 

 spring dress, but has continued the plain brown, like the 



