3G 



As I stated before, the subdued voice is the result of darkening- the 

 -cages during the training, and I am more than glad to have had the 

 privilege of passing much time in "school-rooms," where scores of 

 young birds were at work without one harsh or piercing sound being 

 in evidence, and without a bird being visible. 



It must not be supposed that this mode of training involves the 

 slightest cruelty to the birds. The darknesss is not absolute ; 

 otherwise they would not be able to distinguish night from day. 

 Moreover, the cages are uncovered at least once a day. As to the 

 strain on the vocal organs involved in bringing forth sounds of such 

 exceptional difficulty, that is entirely self-imposed ; the spirit of 

 emulation is unbounded, and the fitness to indulge that spirit is 

 extraordinary. 



From the throats of the one or two schoolmasters, and from the 

 flute of the trainer, the young birds hear perhaps forty different 

 sounds. Clever aspirants master three-fourths of that number by 

 December, but then comes the period when a goodly number of 

 the tours will be discarded by all the birds, and only a score or so- 

 retained to form their future repertoire. If this is of the right 

 combination and order of succession, the trainer has the best of 

 prospects of success at the singing contests. 



In a well-fitted studying room, where some dozens of birds are at 

 work, it is, of course, almost impossible to hear distinctly what each 

 may be doing individually. The trainer calls therefore another 

 faculty to his aid — besides hearing them, he 



SEES WHAT THEY SING. 



The acquiring of the faculty of judging the song of a bird by sight 

 is a long but most interesting and useful study. 



The primary conditions of a bird's developing good work are that 

 he should sing with his bill very nearly closed and his throat well 

 expanded. By closely watching the working of these two parts of 

 the body the owner can tell what tours are being delivered, notwith- 

 standing that in the general din of voices he may not be able to 

 distinguish any individual sound. A knowledge, therefore, of the 

 manner in which good or bad articulations are produced is very 

 desirable to the intending buyer of German Canaries, such buying" 



