6 



When I said above that these birds are "manufactured," I was 

 alluding to the extraordinary development of their organs of vocali- 

 zation, for it must be understood by the reader that the German bird 

 is not valued in the slightest by his appearance, but entirely by his 

 vocal proficiency By years of careful selection, assimilation, and 

 elimination, offspring are ultimately obtained whose voice-producing 

 organs have been so altered, or, if I may say so, improved, from their 

 natural condition, as to be fitted to endure the strain put upon them 

 by their tiny but ambitious possessors while under tuition. Without 

 this prolonged artificial development of the vocal organs, the best 

 endeavours of the bird to produce other than his natural song would 

 be futile, and that the efforts of the untrained Canary are not exactly 

 productive of enjoyable music will readily be conceded by those, 

 with an ear, who have ever been condemned to listen to the ear- 

 splitting song of an English Canary, beautiful as he may have been 

 in outward appearance. From this it will be clear to tho^e of my 

 readers who have endeavoured to bring up British Canaries under 

 German "schoolmasters" why their trouble has been productive of 

 so little success in the matter of improved song. It has taken many 

 years of assiduity to produce our Norwich Crest from the raw 

 material or to "manufacture" the Scotch Don out of the slim 

 Belgian, but it has taken considerably longer to establish the German 

 Canaries' lungs and windpipe. That the development of the vocal 

 and breathing organs does not effect the German birds' general con- 

 stitution is proved by their undiminished longevity, and their very 

 evident enjoyment of their little lives, prisoners though they be. 

 That it is far from imparing their reproductive power is evidenced by 

 their constant numerical increase, and corresponding decrease in 

 commercial value. The imported bird of the present day is twice as 

 clever as his congener of a decade ago, and is much cheaper to buy. 

 "Tours," as the Germans call the prolonged song notes which, strung 

 together, form the song, and which give the birds their especial value, 

 are now heard quite commonly of such quality as would formerly 

 have been scarcely thought possible of imitation by Canaries 

 representing, as they do, the choicest productions of the choicest wild 

 birds themselves. 



There is a general belief among bird lovers that the German 

 Canary who imitates those strains so perfectl when purchased in 



