1883.] 



THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



211 



|«#»U pet*. 



TEACHING BIRDS. 



Few birds that are esteemed as pets in a 

 household, says the New-York Times, sing 

 their natural song. If they did they wouldn't 

 he so highly prized. The canary, even, is 

 trained to his song, and the young bird is 

 kept, by the careful breeder, in the company 

 of only the best singers. So is the bullfinch, 

 the starling, the blackbird and others whose 

 songs make them so valuable to dealers. So 

 the song-birds are never taught to improve 

 their songs in this country. 



Dealers say it is because we haven't men 

 on this side of the Atlantic who will enter 

 into competition with the trainers in Ger- 

 many. The Americanized foreigners find 

 that this business doesn't pay. So even 

 those who have been in the business in the 

 Old World drop it when they come here. 

 Yet, in a small way, these trainers pursue 

 their vocation here, to some extent, rather for 

 recreation than remuneration. These efforts, 

 however, are directed mainly to the training 

 of speaking birds, like the parrot and magpie, 

 rather than the songsters. 



There lives on Eoosevelt street an Alsatian 

 who has accomplished a wonder in the train- 

 ing of a common field robin. The bird was 

 kept by him in a dark room with a small 

 music-box set to play only one tune, "My 

 Mary Ann," made popular by Harrigan and 

 Hart in one of their farces. A dozen times 

 a day or more the music-box ground out this 

 one tune. 



The owner of the bird is a good whistler 

 and something of a musician. At such odd 

 hours as he could get from his work he went 

 to the room where the bird was confined and 

 whistled the tune. Occasionally he would 

 take his violin to the room and play "My 

 Mary Ann." 



The robin heard no music but this, and as 

 a consequence in a couple of months began 

 to sing this song. When he got so he 

 could whistle it from beginning to end his 

 improvement ceased. And now he sings at 

 intervals this plaintive air in rivalry with 

 the music-box, and much to the delight of its 

 •owner. 



The imitative faculty thus developed has 

 clung to the bird, who is now constantly 

 picking up new notes, and has perfected 

 itself in a portion of one of the airs from 

 " Fatinitza." It has also learned to speak 

 three French phrases, and has acquired the 

 habit of calling out in a shrill whistle, 

 " Jules," the name of its owner's son. Alto- 

 gether it is a famous bird, and its owner will 

 not part with it for any amount of money. 



The method pursued by this Alsatian is 

 that pursued by all trainers in Europe who 

 make the education of song-birds a specialty. 

 The bullfinch is their favorite student, be- 

 cause it learns the most readily, can acquire 

 two or three tunes, and is a favorite in the 

 market. These trainers, generally peasants, 

 will fill a darkened room with cages of bull- 

 finches, and teach them by the use of what 

 is known as a bird-organ to whistle some 

 particular tune. 



The bird-organ is a baby hand-organ and 

 plays only the one song the teacher desires 

 his scholars to learn. This is ground out to 

 them a dozen times daily, and in a month 

 or two the pupils are graduated, and appar- 



ently revel in their education, abandoning 

 their natural song for the artificial one. 

 The violin or music-box is often substituted 

 for the bird-organ, but one of the three is 

 always an accompaniment to the education 

 of a song-bird. 



The young canary takes its schooling from 

 its male parent, and young birds while in 

 training have no other education than being 

 confined in a room with a number of the best 

 singers. 



iFil Life, 



BUYING FROM HEAD-QUARTERS. 



Why will not the fruit-growers, to say 

 nothing of the small dairy farmers, put 

 themselves in direct communication with 

 their customers by letting it be known that 

 they are ready to fill small orders ? In lay- 

 ing by supplies for winter, intelligent house- 

 keepers would be glad to order from growers 

 direct to suit themselves. For instance, 

 every one wants during the season two or 

 three hundred pounds of good table Grapes, 

 which cannot be bought here except at fancy 

 prices, and, what is worse, are flat and poor 

 when bought. Then one wants some really 

 good Quinces, a bushel or two, for marmalade, 

 and a bushel of wild Grapes, which, for fra- 

 grance and musky flavor, are incomparable 

 for jellies, to say nothing of winter Apples 

 and Pears. I know they are little over half 

 the cost of these extravagant Boston mar- 

 kets (the dearest in the country), only twelve 

 miles from here, and for seasons we have 

 ordered everything possible from a friend in 

 the interior of New- York State, to the great 

 saving of purse, and certainly of having the 

 table well supplied. But friends die or move 

 away, and there is no compass to direct one 

 where else to send. We really think of 

 freighting oats, apples, and butter from 

 Iowa ; for, spite of the distance, it pays as 

 mere economy. 



Why wont farmers and fruit-growers in- 

 sert a line once in awhile in the papers, to 

 say that they are ready to supply house- 

 keepers' orders in the fall "? There may be 

 some inconveniences in getting a new plan 

 started, but they can all be got the better 

 of if people go to work properly. The Deer- 

 foot farm, near Worcester, has advertised 

 in Boston daily papers for several years, 

 and made a good thing of it, though Deer- 

 foot produce brings fancy prices. 



When livingnear New- York, we usedtotake 

 little trips off on the Erie or the Northern 

 New Jersey Railroad in the fall, as far as 

 Sufferns and Closter, or above, and hunt up 

 our pears, butter, and honey from the 

 orchards and neat private dairies. One is 

 much better served in stich a way, and 

 there was a flavor about things of the blue 

 October skies and hazy Sleepy Hollow re- 

 gion, the deep, late pastures and sunny 

 autumn woods, that gave our housekeeping 

 a zest. Poultry dealers advertise small 

 orders, a trio of fowls or dozen of eggs ; 

 why wont it pay fruit-growers to do the 

 same ? If the farmer's business is crowded, 

 a young son or daughter might take the 

 order department in special charge, and get 

 better prices for part of the produce than are 

 obtained from wholesale dealers. 



East Dedham. 



iscollanoous. 



DRESSED FOR MEETING. 



See my pretty ruffled dross ! 



See my tienty locket ! 

 'Spects I'm most a lady now, 



'Cause I've got a pocket. 

 These down liere are my new shoes 



That I walks my feet iu ; 

 Course it wouldn't do to wear 



Copper toes to meetiu'. 



See my picture hanker fust, 



Sunday days I has it ; 

 I can blow my nose in church 



Most like papa does it. 

 Papa's hitehin' Jack and Gray, 



An' they keep a-pranein'; 

 Horses don't wear Sunday clothes — 



They dou't know they're dancin'. 



Grandpa used to go with us, 



Now he's gone to hea ven ; 

 Guess he's at the angel church, 



Up where God is livin'. 

 I don't take no cake with me — 



Never think of eatin'. 

 Don't you want a nice, clean kiss 



'Fore we go to meetin' t 



A. H. Poe. 



POISONED ARROWS. 



At a recent session of the Societe d'An- 

 thropologie, an interesting communication 

 was received from M. W. J. Hoffman, re- 

 garding the methods employed by Indians to 

 poison their arrow-points. The Comanehes 

 simply pierce the green shell of the Spanish 

 Bayonet, ov Tiara anijitsti folia, with the points. 

 The Apaches bruise up the heads of rattle- 

 snakes with fragments of deer's liver, allow 

 the mass to become putrid, then dip the 

 arrow-points and allow them to dry slowly. 

 The Chinouns (Moquis of Arizona) irritate a 

 rattlesnake until he bites himself, and then 

 dip the point and a portion of the wood into 

 the animal. A wound with one of these 

 arrows generally proves fata 1 in three or four 

 days, and its action is much more rapid if 

 the stomach of the wounded person is empty 

 at the time the injury is received. Another 

 poison is obtained by irritating bees, shak- 

 ing the hive, and then killing them when in 

 this state with small branches bunched to- 

 gether. The insects are crushed up in a mass 

 with mortar and pestle, and the arrow-points 

 are dipped in the magma. It is probable that 

 the active substance in this case consists in 

 the formic acid contained in the bodies of 

 the bees. This preparation does not cause 

 death, but induces long continued sickness. 

 Another very active but not fatal poison is 

 prepared from red ants. It produces pain in 

 the pharynx, considerable swelling of the 

 part injured, and sometimes delirium. The 

 patient remains feeble for a month. — Medi- 

 cal and Surgical Reporter. 



THE CRANBERRY CROP. 



The statistics of the American Cranberry 

 Growers' Association show that the crop of 

 1882 was 307,282 bushels, of which there 

 were marketed in New-York 115,458 bush- 

 els, against 126,677 bushels the previous 

 years. For the three seasons last past, the 

 prices have fallen off in the spring from those 

 of the preceding December. Growers may 

 expect good prices this year, as the light 

 Apple crop will no doubt create a better 

 demand for Cranberries. 



