THE SINGING BIRD, OR " HARTZ " CANARY. 23 



Such pitiful screechings must not be uttered by any "noble" 

 bird, if it is to satisfy the pretentions of a real connoisseur. 

 As regards delicacy of the voice and a noble tone, the most 

 proficient "gurgling-bird" or a fine "hollow-rolling" canary, 

 surpasses every other songster of the air. 



Singing-models, whose principal roll is simply the 

 " hollow "-roll, are less esteemed, because the young birds, 

 if they do not succeed in producing the roll, or in articu- 

 lating the r by which, precisely, the rolling is effected and 

 characterised, will be prone to whistle, and thus form 

 a "roll" which is fi tt in glv called a "howling" roll. The 

 first requirement of a connoisseur concerning a good male 

 bird ivill be : no disconnected, shrill notes, no sounds pro- 

 duced by the tongue, and no protracted gogglings. The in- 

 habitants of Andreasberg used to say, in those times when 

 their birds still occupied this proud eminence, " A good bird 

 must do nothing but ' roll ' or 1 toot.' " It is true that the 

 " goggle " or " cackle" is partly produced by the tongue, but, 

 precisely on this account, it is considered as the most insignifi- 

 cant among the " rolls," and must not altogether be used by 

 the warbler in a preponderant fashion, but merely as a 

 recreation. Hollow or soft " goggling," however, sounds 

 already much better; the song, moreover, to be entirely 

 pure and faultless, sounds like "wiss, wiss," or "wist, wist ; " 

 a soft whistle resembling the piping of a mouse, " ss, ss," 

 not to mention the sound of " e," a shrill, high-pitched, 

 hard whistle, sounding like "wee, wee," the so-called "bell" 

 whistle (which in Hanover is called a " resting-flute "), or 

 a "pointed" flute, "quee, quee," and a luring note, "dee, 

 dee, dee," we must except as part of the song ; they are 

 attributes of even the most excellent breed ; not one, not 

 even the most expensive of the birds will be without one or 

 other of these drawbacks. Therefore we designate birds 

 which have contracted only one of the defects enumerated 



